The Croatian 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 Croatian language of the parent's version of two health related quality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional abi lity in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthri tis (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrum ent designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of childre n independently from the underlying disease. The Croatian CHAQ-CHQ were ful ly validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations. A total of 139 sub jects were enrolled: 75 patients with JIA (19% systemic onset, 20% polyarti cular onset, 17% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 44% persistent oligoa rticular subtype) and 64 healthy children. CHAQ clinically discriminated be tween healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular and extende d oligoarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CH Q clinically discriminated between healthy, subjects and JIA patients, with the polyarticular onset and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a lowe r physical and psychosocial wellbeing when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Croatian version of, the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and val id tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of childre n with JIA.