Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan;166(1):74-81.
doi: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.694.

Health-related quality of life in pediatric minor injury: reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory in the emergency department

Martha W Stevens  1 , Keri R Hainsworth, Steven J Weisman, Peter M Layde
Affiliations

Health-related quality of life in pediatric minor injury: reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory in the emergency department

Martha W Stevens et al. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Core Scales (PedsQL) in the first 2 weeks after pediatric emergency department care of minor injury.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Pediatric hospital emergency department.

Participants: Children and adolescents with minor injury (n = 334).

Main outcome measures: Child- and parent-reported clinical outcomes and PedsQL scale scores.

Results: The PedsQL had good to excellent internal consistency reliability (α range, 0.73-0.93). For each day that the clinical symptoms persisted, there were consistent decreases in mean health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores (validity testing). There were significantly greater negative changes in mean HRQOL scores for fractures vs soft-tissue injuries and for lower vs upper extremity injuries. Clinical outcomes categorized as poor had large negative changes in HRQOL not seen in good outcome groups. Distribution-based indicators of change supported good responsiveness (effect sizes for the physical summary score, 0.01-2.44; group differences at follow-up exceeded estimates of the minimal importance difference).

Conclusions: The PedsQL is feasible, reliable, and demonstrates good construct and discriminant validity and responsiveness in measuring short-term outcome after minor injury care in the pediatric emergency department. Assessing short-term outcome from the patient perspective with HRQOL measures may greatly enhance our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency department care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Crain EF. Improving emergency medical services for children through outcomes research: an interdisciplinary approach: proceedings of a conference. Ambul Pediatr. 2002;2:285–292. - PubMed
    1. Cairns CB, Garrison HG, Hedges JR, Schriger DL, Valenzuela TD. Development of new methods to assess the outcomes of emergency care. Acad Emerg Med. 1998;5(2):157–161. - PubMed
    1. Institute of Medicine. Future of Emergency Care Series: Emergency Care for Children: Growing Pains. Washington, DC: Institution of Medicine of the National Academies; 2006.
    1. Maio RF, Garrison HG, Spaite DW, et al. Emergency Medical Services Outcomes Project I (EMSOP I): prioritizing conditions for outcomes research. Ann Emerg Med. 1999;33(4):423–432. - PubMed
    1. Spaite DW, Maio R, Garrison HG, et al. Emergency Medical Services Outcomes Project (EMSOP) II: developing the foundation and conceptual models for out-of-hospital outcomes research. Ann Emerg Med. 2001;37(6):657–663. - PubMed

Publication types