Objective:Developing a quality of life questionnaire (QOLQI) for young Indian asthmatic children
Methods:
The Items of the QOLQI were selected to capture content validity and sensibility.
The QOLQI contains 18 items, grouped under 4 Domains and was to be
scored by parents on a score from 1-7. It showed good internal consistency
(Cronbaach’s alpha was 0.8), strong item-domain correlation (r=0.6-0.9), and
discrimininant validity (r= 0.1-0.4).
Criteria for inclusion:
Children under 5 they had symptoms of asthma: (breathlessness wheeze or nocturnal cough).
Data sample:
Consisted of 41 asthmatic children: (mean age= 3.9+/-1.4 SD, males: 26/41(63.8%),
females: 15/41 (36.5%) and 15 controls (mean age 4+/- SD1.2).
Results:
The mean score of the domains of asthmatic children were significantly higher (30, 33 52 31% p=<0.05) as compared to the controls, suggesting that the QOLQI was measuring what it was supposed to measure.
The domain of symptoms had significantly higher (mean=4.2+/- SD=2, p=<0.05) than those of environment (mean=3.6 +/- SD=1.8, p=<0.05), emotions (mean=3.6+/-1.6 SD) and physical activity (mean=3.2 +/- SD=2.65, p=<0.05) respectively, suggesting that the domains were moving in the same direction.
In the absence of a gold standard we set up a hypothesis to determine
“predictable relations”. We gave weightages to the means of the domains according
to their clinical relevance: When these weighted means were arranged in a
descending order, three thresholds were observed : scores > 60, 59-30 and below 30.
These predictable thresholds corresponded with severe (score of 60 or more),
moderate (score 59 to 30) or mild asthma (score <30).AA
Summary:
QOLQI has a good internal consistency, inter-item and item-domain correlation anddiscriminates the severity of asthma
Conclusions:
The QOLQI can be confidently used for asthmatic Indian children under 5 years
Key words: Asthma, , Children under five years, , Quality of life