Self-reported quality of life among inner-city youth with asthma: an empirical examination of the PedsQL 3.0 Asthma Module.

BACKGROUND: Asthma disproportionately affects African American youth and may significantly impair their daily functioning. Although a number of self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures have been developed, many rely on parent proxy report rather than youth self-report. Few validity studies have been undertaken to evaluate youth self-report instruments, and studies of economically disadvantaged ethnic minority populations are particularly lacking.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the PedsQL 3.0 Asthma Module, a widely available self-report index of HRQoL in a sample of inner-city African American youth.
METHODS: Seventy African American youth with asthma (age range, 9-17 years) and their primary caregivers participated. Youth completed the PedsQL 3.0 Asthma Module (developed for youth aged 5-18 years), whereas caregivers provided reports of youth HRQoL, asthma symptoms, health care use, and school absences. Ratings of asthma severity were obtained via physician rating and spirometry.
RESULTS: The PedsQL 3.0 Asthma Module total and subscale scores evidenced adequate internal consistency (alpha values >.70), convergent validity with parent proxy ratings of HRQoL and other indexes of functional impairment and differentiated between youth with greater and lesser disease severity.
CONCLUSION: HRQoL can be reliably assessed using the self-report form of the PedsQL 3.0 Asthma Module among 9- to 17-year-old African American youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.