|
Description:
|
BACKGROUND : Quality of Life (QoL ) is a ubiquitous yet poorly defined concept in clinical medicine . Many widely used instruments to measure QoL lack a theoretical basis and therefore may not provide accurate assessment . Multiple discrepancy theory advocates that net satisfaction is determined by evaluating the difference or gap between current life circumstances and a standard of comparison . A QoL instrument based on discrepancy theory has been developed by our research group to evaluate children with chronic diseases .
OBJECTIVE : To evaluate the parent -child agreement for discrepancy theory items on the GAP QoL Questionnaire for children with chronic illness .
DESIGN /METHODS : Children and parents were recruited for this pilot study when attending regularly scheduled appointments in a variety of outpatient clinics at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids ) . Trained interviewers administered the GAP Questionnaire to parents - and to their children if older than age 10 . Children and parents answered the questionnaire blind to each other's answers .
RESULTS : 77 participants (28 children , 49 parents : 24 parent /child pairs ) were enrolled . The most important items for determining QoL generated by the GAP Questionnaire differed for children and parents (See Table ) . The overall weighted Kappa value for parent -child agreement on the GAP Questionnaire was 0 .349 indicating moderate agreement . Items with the highest agreement were having pets (0 .6962 ) , getting along with brothers /sisters (0 .5886 ) , and the place religion has in your life (0 .549 ) . |