Rek. Stein et al., THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR IDENTIFYING CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC CONDITIONS - A MEASURE BASED ON A NONCATEGORICAL APPROACH, Pediatrics, 99(4), 1997, pp. 513-521
Objective. To report on the development of the Questionnaire for Ident
ifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC). This new instrument
identifies children and adolescents who have chronic health conditions
based on the noncategorical conceptual framework outlined in our earl
ier work. It uses the consequences of conditions as a method for ident
ifying children with chronic health conditions and is completely indep
endent of diagnosis. Method. Through a combination of techniques, we d
eveloped and piloted items and created 39 brief question sequences tha
t were designed to be administered to a parent or guardian of children
<18 years of age. The prototype was field tested extensively and refi
ned using data from local hospital-based samples representing 318 hous
eholds and 666 children. The instrument was then administered to two l
arge representative samples (local: 657 households, 1275 children; nat
ional: 712 households, 1388 children) to establish validity and reliab
ility. Results. Content, convergent, construct, and criterion validity
each have been demonstrated. The QuICCC has good test-retest reliabil
ity. Parents find the questions easy to answer. It took 7 to 8 minutes
on average to obtain information about all the children in a family.
The QuICCC successfully identified children with a wide range of diffe
rent conditions that are usually considered chronic, and excluded thos
e with acute illnesses and those with conditions but no current conseq
uences. Conclusions. The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with C
hronic Conditions is a practical instrument that can be used for epide
miological purposes. It offers considerable flexibility and has many p
otential applications in health care delivery research.