The Czech version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ)

We report herein the results of the cross-cul t u ral adap t ation and va l i d ation into the Czech language of the parent’s version of t wo health re l ated quality of life instru ments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrument designed to ca p t u re the physical and psychosocial w e l l being of ch i l d ren indep e n d e n t ly from the underlying disease. The Czech CHAQ-CHQ were fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations. A total of 150 subjects were enrolled: 81 patients with JIA (14% systemic onset,44% polyarticular on set, 10% extended oligoarticular subtype , and 32% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 69 healthy children. The CHAQ clini c a l ly discri m i n ated between healthy sub jects and JIA patients, with the systemic, p o lya rticular and extended oligo a rt i c u l a r subtypes having a higher de gree of disabili t y, p a i n , and a lower ove rall we l l - b e i n g when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, polyarticular onset and ex tended oligo a rticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Cze ch ve rsion of the CHAQ-CHQ is a relia ble, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.