Quality of life in children: What is a 'good' measurement tool?

The tools most often used to measure subjective data in health, especially quality of life, are based on psychometry, The object of this article is to provide as simply as possible an explanation to the specific methodologica l aspects of this field. As an example, the child version of the Children H ealth Questionnaire (CHO-CF87) is used to study how to demonstrate the qual ities required for a good assessment tool. acceptability in practice, respo nsiveness, reliability and validity. These qualities must be reassessed whe n a given tool is translated into another language. (C) 2001 Editions scien tifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.