DISABKIDS smiley questionnaire: the TAKE 6 assisted health-related quality of life measure for 4 to 7-year-olds.

The DISABKIDS Smiley TAKE 6 was developed to meet the need for a research instrument to measure the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of children 4-7 years old. TAKE 6 is a European generic assisted-report questionnaire with a proxy version. The items of TAKE 6, scored using a five-point Likert scale, cover a single HrQoL domain. Child and parent focus groups identified the statements which, following a European pilot study, were reduced to six items. A field study of 435 children with a chronic disease in seven European countries revealed that the questionnaire had good reliability (inter-class correlation 0.69), had convergent validity with the KINDL-R (child quality of life questionnaire-revised) (rho 0.60) and satisfactory construct validity showing separation between severity and different medical conditions. The questionnaire was understandable by young children and could be completed within two minutes. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.