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OBJECTIVE - The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a modular instrument designed to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children and adolescents aged 2-18 years. The PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales are child self-report and parent proxy-report scales developed as the generic core measure to be integrated with the PedsQL disease-specific modules. The PedsQL 3.0 Type 1 Diabetes Module was designed to measure diabetes-specific HRQOL.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - The PedsQL Generic Core Scales and Diabetes Module were administered to 300 pediatric patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and 308 parents.
RESULTS - Internal consistency reliability for the PedsQL Generic Core Total Scale score (ox = 0.88 child, 0.89 parent-report) and most Diabetes Module scales (average ot = 0.71 child, 0.77 parent-report) was acceptable for group comparisons. The PedsQL 4.0 distinguished between healthy children and children with diabetes. The Diabetes Module demonstrated intercorrelations with dimensions of generic and diabetes-specific HRQOL.
CONCLUSIONS - The results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the PedsQL in diabetes. The PedsQL may be used as an outcome measure for diabetes clinical trials and research.
Abbreviations: DQOL, Diabetes Quality of Life; HRQOL, health-related quality of life; PedsQL, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory; SES, socioeconomic status.
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an essential health outcome in clinical trials and health care (1-3). The most widely used diseasespecific HRQOL measure for diabetes is the Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL) measure developed for use in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (4). With the exception of a modified version for children aged 11 years and older (5), the DQOL has been primarily used in adults (6).
The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) measurement model (7) was designed to integrate the merits of generic and disease-specific instruments. The PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales distinguish between healthy children and pediatric patients with acute or chronic health conditions (8), and they have demonstrated sensitivity, responsiveness, and an impact on clinical decision-making (9,10). The PedsQL 3.0 Type I Diabetes Module was developed to measure disease-specific HRQOL for type 1 diabetes. Although there are instruments that measure HRQOL in type 1 diabetes (6), we were not able to find a multidimensional instrument that assessed the broad age range of...