THE PROXY PROBLEM - CHILD REPORT VERSUS PARENT REPORT IN HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE RESEARCH

This study evaluates the agreement between child and parent reports on children's health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a representative sample of 1,105 Dutch children (age 8-11 years old). Both children an d their parents completed a 56 item questionnaire (TACQOL). The questi onnaire contains seven eight-item scales: physical complaints, motor f unctioning, autonomy, cognitive functioning, social functioning, posit ive emotions and negative emotions. The Pearson correlations between t he child and parent reports were between 0.44 and 0.61 (p < 0.001), Th e intraclass correlations were between 0.39 and 0.62. On average, the children reported a significantly lower HRQoL than their parents on th e physical complaints, motor functioning, autonomy, cognitive function ing and positive emotions scales (paired t-test: p < 0.05). Agreement on all of the scales was related to the magnitude of the HRQoL scores and to some background variables (gender, age, temporary illness and v isiting a physician). According to multitrait-multimethod analyses, bo th the child and parent reports proved to be valid. Qual. Life Res. 7: 387-397 (C) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers