[General principles, methods and areas of application of quality of life research in children].

Contrary to adults, health-related quality of life of children was only recently discovered as endpoint in pediatric research. On the basis of a theoretical and methodological introduction into quality of life research, the results of a recent literature search on the topic of quality of life and children as related to assessment instruments and their application in pediatric research are described. It is apparent that papers related to quality of life research of children only pertain to 13% of the papers related to adults. Also the majority of the few available assessment instruments from the angloamerican literature and their application in studies is very rare. The need for increased research in the area of children's quality of life is voiced.