The proposed project will assess the age-specific capacity of children to reliably and validly report on their own health status using commonly available survey/interview methods to obtain patient information. The capacity of children to report for themselves is an increasingly important question in asthma research and clinical practice. While significant advances have been made in the development and validation of health status instruments for adults, the development of those for children lags well behind. An unanswered question is at what age can children report for themselves? New National Institutes of Health policies to promote the inclusion of children in research underscore the need to answer this question in ways that are tested and practical. In a 3-year multifaceted study of children with asthma, a team of researchers and clinicians from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Rush Medical Center, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center will assess appropriateness by examining the acceptability, feasibility and psychometric quality of child report. Each component of acceptability may be mediated by other factors; child characteristics such as chronological age and cognitive ability are likely to impact appropriateness as are other demographic and family characteristics. In addition, reliability and validity of children's reports may vary by the type of domain assessed. Primary study aims are to: 1. Examine the acceptability of child-report asthma-related quality of life questionnaires to children and parents; 2. Examine the feasibility of asthma-related quality of life questionnaire administration to and completion by children; and 3. Examine the psychometric quality of asthma-related quality of life questionnaire data obtained from children and their parents. Qualitative activities will gather data on 45 pairs of children and parents in an integrative set of detailed interviews. These data will be used to address questions of acceptability and feasibility. Quantitative activities will collect data from 400 parent-child (ages 7-16) pairs. With these data we will examine the reliability and validity of reports from children across age groups. Relevant covariates, such as type of domain assessed, will also be examined.
| Olson, Lynn M; Radecki, Linda; Frintner, Mary Pat et al. (2007) At what age can children report dependably on their asthma health status? Pediatrics 119:e93-102 |
