The Belgian-Flemish 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 Belgian-Flemish language of the parents version of two health re lated quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Question naire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures function al ability in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health i nstrument designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of c hildren independently from the underlying disease. The Belgian-Flemish CHAQ was fully validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations, while the Belgian-Flemish CHQ was equal to the Dutch version and revalidated in this study. The French version of both CHAQ and CHQ was exactly the same as the one used in France. A total of 199 subjects were enrolled: 53 patients with JIA (11% systemic onset, 40% polyarticular onset, 13% extended oligoarticu lar subtype, and 36% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 146 healthy, ch ildren. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular onset, and extended oligoarticular subtype s having a higher degree of disability, pain. and a lower overall well-bein g when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically, discrimina ted between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosoc ial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Belg ian-Flemish version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the f unctional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children with JIA.