Reliability and validity of the PedsQL™ Generic Core Scales 4.0 for Chinese children with epilepsy

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Psychometrics
• Epilepsy Research

Background:

• Pediatric epilepsy significantly impacts children's quality of life.
• Validated tools are essential for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in pediatric epilepsy.
• The PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales are widely used but require validation in diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales.
• To assess the parent proxy-report's utility for measuring HRQoL in pediatric epilepsy.
• To confirm the suitability of the scales for prognostic measures in this population.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study involving 163 parents of children (2-18 years) with epilepsy.
• Reliability assessed using Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency.
• Validity examined through exploratory factor analysis, intercorrelation analysis, and Student's t-test.

Main Results:

• High internal consistency reliability for the Total Scale Score (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94).
• Factor analysis identified four major underlying factors.
• Significant differences in HRQoL scores between children with epilepsy and healthy children (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

• The Chinese version of the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales demonstrates strong reliability and validity.
• The parent proxy-report effectively measures HRQoL in children with epilepsy.
• These scales are suitable for evaluating HRQoL and aiding in prognostic measures for pediatric epilepsy in China.