The Argentinian version of the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) and the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ)

We report herein the results of the cross-cultural adaptation and validatio n into the Argentinian language of the parents version of two health relate d quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnair e (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional a bility in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arth ritis WA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrum ent designed to capture the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of children independently from the underlying disease. The Argentinian CHAQ was alread y published and therefore it was revalidated while the Argentinian CHQ was derived from the European Spanish version by changing few words which use i s different in the 2 countries. A total of 124 subjects were enrolled: 61 p atients with JIA (29% systemic onset, 38% polyarticular onset, 7% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 26% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 63 h ealthy children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic on set, and polyarticular having a hig her degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compare d to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between hea lthy subjects anti JIA patients, with the systemic, onset, polyarticular on set and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psycho social well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the A rgentinian version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the fu nctional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.