ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Reliability and validity of health status measurement by the TAPQOL

E M Bunge¹, M-L Essink-Bot¹, M P H M Kobussen², L W A van Suijlekom-Smit³, H A Moll³, H Raat^1,4

¹ Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands
² Community Care Salland, Ommen, Netherlands
³ Department of Paediatrics, Erasmus MC–University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands
⁴ GGD–Municipal Health Service, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Ms E Bunge
Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands; e.bunge{at}erasmusmc.nl

Background: In addition to clinical measures in the evaluation of paediatric interventions, health related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome. The TAPQOL (TNO-AZL Preschool children Quality of Life) was developed to measure HRQoL in preschool children. It is a generic instrument consisting of 12 scales that cover the domains physical, social, cognitive, and emotional functioning.

Aims: To evaluate the feasibility, score distribution, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and discriminative and concurrent validity of the TAPQOL multi-item scales in preschool children, aged 2–48 months. Also to evaluate the feasibility, reliability, and validity separately for infants (2–12 months old) and toddlers (12–48 months old).

Methods: Parents of a random general population sample of 500 preschool children were sent a questionnaire by mail. A random subgroup of 159 parents who participated received a retest after two weeks.

Results: The response rate was 83% at the test and 75% at the retest. There were few missing answers. Six scales showed ceiling effects. Nine scales had Cronbach’s alphas >0.70. In general, score distributions and Cronbach’s alphas were comparable for infants and toddlers. Test-retest showed no significant differences in mean scale scores; two scales had intra-class correlations <0.50. Five scales showed significant differences between children with no conditions versus children with two or more parent reported chronic conditions.

Conclusion: Results showed that the TAPQOL is a feasible instrument to measure HRQoL and support the reliability and discriminative validity of the majority of its scales for infants as well as toddlers.

Keywords: TAPQOL; quality of life; reliability; test retest; validity

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Ermers, M. J J, Rovers, M. M, van Woensel, J. B, Kimpen, J. L L, Bont, L. J, on behalf of the RSV Corticosteroid Study Group, (2009). The effect of high dose inhaled corticosteroids on wheeze in infants after respiratory syncytial virus infection: randomised double blind placebo controlled trial. BMJ 338: b897-b897 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Verhoeven, M., Junger, M., Van Aken, C., Dekovic, M., Van Aken, M. A. G. (2007). Parenting During Toddlerhood: Contributions of Parental, Contextual, and Child Characteristics. Journal of Family Issues 28: 1663-1691 [Abstract]