Validation of healthcare professional proxy-reported children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Oncology
• Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
• Clinical Assessment Tools

Background:

• Mucositis is a common and debilitating side effect of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in children.
• Accurate assessment of mucositis is crucial for timely intervention and management.
• The Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES) is a tool used to evaluate mucositis, but its proxy-report version by healthcare professionals needed validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and validity of the healthcare professional proxy-report version of the Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES).
• To establish ChIMES as a dependable tool for assessing mucositis in pediatric HCT patients.

Main Methods:

• 192 pediatric patients (4-21 years) undergoing HCT were included.
• Trained healthcare professionals assessed mucositis daily using ChIMES, WHO toxicity scale, pain VAS, NCI-CTCAE, and OMDQ from days 7-17 post-infusion.
• Psychometric properties including internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent construct validity were analyzed.

Main Results:

• ChIMES demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90 for Total Score, 0.93 for Percentage Score).
• High test-retest reliability was observed (ICC = 0.82 for both Total and Percentage Scores).
• Convergent construct validity was confirmed, with correlations meeting or exceeding hypothesized values (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The healthcare professional proxy-report version of ChIMES is a reliable and valid instrument.
• ChIMES is suitable for assessing mucositis in pediatric and adolescent patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation.