HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN WITH ASTHMA - LESSONS FOR THE CROSS-CULTURAL USE OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE INSTRUMENTS

The development of Australian forms of the Childhood Asthma Questionna ires (CAQs) is reported. Focus group methods and psychometric analyses were used to establish the conceptual, semantic and technical equival ence of these forms with the UK versions. Both versions also provide f or data collection from non-asthmatic youngsters. The internal consist ency was found to be acceptable (Cronbach's alpha 0.52-0.90) and the h ealth-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores were found to vary with a sthma severity (p < 0.05). Comparison with the UK data revealed that t he non-asthmatic scores were higher for Australian than British childr en (p < 0.001) but that the scores for children with asthma did not di ffer between the two countries. It was only In the Australian sample t hat the group with asthma reported impaired HRQoL when compared to the ir healthy peers. These findings were interpreted in the context of cu ltural expectations of life quality and conclusions are presented rega rding the importance of the gap between experience and expectations. T he difficulties raised by the developmental and cultural issues inhere nt in paediatric HRQoL research were discussed. Qual. Life Res. 7:409- 419 (C) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers