The Mexican 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 Mexican language of the parents version of two health related qu ality, of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire ( CHAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional abil ity, in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthri tis (RA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrume nt designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Mexican CHAQ was already pu blished and therefore it was revalidated while the Mexican CHQ was derived from the European Spanish version with changing of the few words whose use is different in the 2 countries. A total of 182 subjects were enrolled: 89 patients with RA (26% systemic onset, 47% polyarticular onset, 13.5% extend ed oligoarticular subtype, and 13.5% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 93 healthy, children. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy su bjects and RA patients, with the systemic onset, and polyarticular onset su btypes having a higher degree of disability. pain, and a lower overall well -being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically, discr iminated between healthy subjects and RA patients, with the systemic onset, and polyarticular onset having a lower physical and psychosocial well-bein g when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Mexican version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children w ith JIA.