Psychometric properties and validation of the Polish CP QOL-Child questionnaire: a pilot study

Translate, determine the psychometric properties and validate the Polish CP QOL-Child questionnaire.

A double translation of the questionnaire from English into Polish and back was executed. The questionnaire was distributed to 55 parents/legal guardians of children with cerebral palsy aged 4-12 years. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were determined on the basis of its internal consistency and the internal consistency of each of the investigated aspects, as well as on the assessment of the relationship between quality of life and such data as child's age, parent's age, place of residence and GMFCS level.

The results showed high levels of internal consistency of the Polish version of the CP QOL-Child questionnaire - Cronbach's α was between 0.77 and 0.82, which is comparable to the original scale, where it was 0.74-0.92. In addition, we found no relationship between child's age and parent's age and the child's quality of life. Whereas we determined dependencies between the child's GMFCS level and quality of life in areas such as emotional state (p = 0.025), pain and the effects of disability (p = 0.033), and to a lesser extent participation in social life (p = 0.045). However, Spearman test presented that only domain pain and impact of disability reported positive correlation r = 0.43.

Studies showed that English language the CP QOL-Child questionnaire was successful translated into Polish which is confirmed by the results of the assessment of the psychometric properties and validation of the Polish language questionnaire. The results of our study indicate that the Polish language version of the CP QOL-Child questionnaire is an appropriate tool to assess the quality of life of Polish-speaking children with cerebral palsy aged 4-12 years.