Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D)

Generic measure

Measure domains: Emotional function (worried, sad, annoyed), Physical function (tired, pain, sleep, daily routine), Schoolwork/homework/learning function, Social function (able to join in)

Summary of development:  The CHU9D was developed as a preference-based measure for HRQoL in children and adolescents. An unpublished paper written by Stevens in 2008 describes the conceptual framework and the process of developing the measurement instrument.  Stevens (2009) reviewed previous pediatric HRQoL measures and then conducted several rounds of qualitative interviews with 7–11-year-old children to develop areas of concern, ranking of concerns, and test descriptive wording. This work found 11 dimensions of HRQoL and early questionnaires had 19 questions.  Further work reduced the number of domains to 9 and the number of questions to 9.

There are several tests of different scoring options.  The measure website recommends using Stevens 2012 scoring using the standard gamble with adults in the UK.  The website notes there is also a scoring algorithm developed using best/worst scaling with Australian adolescents (Ratcliffe 2011).

It is important to note that health utility scales that are made in the econometric tradition, such as the CHU9D, do not necessarily need psychometric testing such as internal consistency or structural validity.  For these measures, other types of validity such as known groups validity and convergent validity may be useful.