The Serbian 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 Serbian language of the parentis 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 a generic health instrume nt designed to capture the physical and psychosocial well-being of children independently from the underlying disease. The Serbian CHAQ-CHQ were fully validated with 3 forward and 1 backward translations. A total of 139 subje cts were enrolled: 79 patients with JIA (30% systemic onset, 28% polyarticu lar onset, 6% extended oligoarticular subtype, and 36% persistent oligoarti cular subtype) and 60 healthy, children. The CHAQ clinically, discriminated between healthy, subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic, polyarticul ar and extended oligoarticular subtypes having a higher degree of disabilit y. pain, and a lower overall well-being when compared to their healthy peer s. Also the CHQ clinically, discriminated between healthy subjects and JIA patients, with the systemic onset, polyarticular onset and extended oligoar ticular subtypes having a lower physical and psychosocial well-being when c ompared to their healthy peers. In conclusion the Serbian version of the CHAQ-CHQ is a reliable, and valid tool for the functional, physical and psychosocial assessment of children w ith JIA.