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

We report the cross-cultural adaptation and validation into Brazilian-Portu guese of the parent's version of two health related quality of life instrum ents. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease spe cific health instrument that measures functional ability, in daily living a ctivities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The Child H ealth Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrument designed to captur e the physical and psychosocial well-being of children regardless the under lying disease, The Brazilian CHAQ was revalidated, while the CHQ has been d erived from the Portuguese version. A total of 471 subjects were enrolled: 157 patients with JIA (27% systemic onset, 38% polyarticular onset, 9% exte nded oligoarticular subtype, and 26% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 314 healthy children. The CHAQ discriminated clinically healthy subjects f rom JIA patients, with the systemic, polyarticular and extended oligoarticu lar subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and lower overall well-being scores when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ discri minated clinically healthy, subjects from JIA patients, with the systemic o nset, polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a low er physical and psychosocial well-being score when compared to their health y peers. In conclusion the Brazilian versions of the CHAQ-CHQ are reliable and valid tools for the combined physical and psychosocial assessment of ch ildren with JIA.