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The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions: a measure based on a noncategorical approach
R E Stein1, L E Westbrook, L J Bauman
1Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
Insights
The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC) is a new, practical tool for identifying children with chronic health conditions. It is diagnosis-independent and focuses on the consequences of conditions, proving reliable and easy for parents to use.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health Research
- Epidemiology
- Health Outcomes Measurement
Background:
- Identifying children with chronic health conditions is crucial for epidemiological studies and healthcare delivery.
- Existing methods may rely on diagnostic codes, which can be limiting.
- A non-categorical framework focusing on condition consequences offers a novel approach.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC).
- To create an instrument that identifies children with chronic health conditions based on their functional consequences, independent of diagnosis.
- To establish the reliability and validity of the QuICCC for use in research and clinical settings.
Main Methods:
- Development of 39 question sequences for parental administration to children under 18.
- Extensive piloting and refinement using hospital-based samples (318 households, 666 children).
- Validation and reliability testing on large representative samples (local: 1275 children; national: 1388 children).
Main Results:
- Demonstrated content, convergent, construct, and criterion validity.
- Established good test-retest reliability.
- Parents found the questionnaire easy to complete (7-8 minutes per family); successfully identified children with chronic conditions and excluded those with acute illnesses or no current consequences.
Conclusions:
- The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC) is a practical and validated instrument for epidemiological research.
- Its diagnosis-independent approach and focus on consequences offer flexibility for various healthcare delivery research applications.
Objective:
To report on the development of the Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC). This new instrument identifies children and adolescents who have chronic health conditions based on the noncategorical conceptual framework outlined in our earlier work. It uses the consequences of conditions as a method for identifying children with chronic health conditions and is completely independent of diagnosis.
Method:
Through a combination of techniques, we developed and piloted items and created 39 brief question sequences that were designed to be administered to a parent or guardian of children < 18 years of age. The prototype was field tested extensively and refined using data from local hospital-based samples representing 318 households and 666 children. The instrument was then administered to two large representative samples (local: 657 households, 1275 children; national: 712 households, 1388 children) to establish validity and reliability.
Results:
Content, convergent, construct, and criterion validity each have been demonstrated. The QuICCC has good test-retest reliability. Parents find the questions easy to answer. It took 7 to 8 minutes on average to obtain information about all the children in a family. The QuICCC successfully identified children with a wide range of different conditions that are usually considered chronic, and excluded those with acute illnesses and those with conditions but no current consequences.
Conclusions:
The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions is a practical instrument that can be used for epidemiological purposes. It offers considerable flexibility and has many potential applications in health care delivery research.