The Turkish 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 Turkish language of the parent's version of two health related q uality 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 arthrit is (JIA). The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) is (I generic health instrum ent designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of childre n independently from the underlying disease. The Turkish CHAQ CHQ were full y validated with 3 forward and 3 backward translations. A total of 145 subj ects were enrolled: 85 patients with JIA (35% systemic onset, 41% polyartic ular onset, and 24% persistent oligoarticular subtype) and 60 healthy child ren. The CHAQ clinically discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA pat ients, with the systemic, and polyarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disability, pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peers. Also the CHQ clinically discriminated between healthy subje cts and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, and polyarticular onset havi ng a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when compared to their heal thy peers. In conclusion the Turkish version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children w ith JIA.