The Swedish 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 Swedish language of the parents version of two health related qu ality of life instruments. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (C HAQ) is a disease specific health instrument that measures functional abili ty in daily living activities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthriti s (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is a generic health instrumen t designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Swedish CHAQ CHQ were alread y published and therefore it-ere revalidated in this study. A total of 129 subjects were enrolled: 69 patients with JIA (13% systemic onset, 39% polya rticular onset, 25% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 23% persistent oli goarticular subtype) and 60 healthy children. The CHAQ clinically discrimin ated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, polyarti cular and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disabi lity, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy p eers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JI A patients, with the systemic onset, polyarticular onset and extended oligo articular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Swedish version of the CHAQ-CHQ are reliable, and valid t ools for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children w ith JIA.