Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory- (PedsQL) 4.0 Generic Core Scales

Generic with Disease-Specific Modules

Measure domains: Functioning: physical; emotional; social; school

Infant (>2 years) Version Domains: Functioning: physical; emotional; social; cognitive; physical symptoms

Summary of development:

The PedsQL was derived from the Pediatric Cancer Quality of Life Inventory (PCQL). The PedsQL measures the patient’s and the parent’s perceptions of the patient’s HRQOL, as defined in terms of the impact of disease and treatment on an individual’s physical, psychological, and social functioning, and by disease/treatment-specific symptoms; and higher PedsQL scores indicate higher HRQOL (Varni, 1999).

The original PedsQL4.0 Generic Core Scales instrument can be scored as a 23-item Total Score, an 8-item Physical Health Summary subscale, and a 15-item Psychosocial Health Summary subscale.  The Psychosocial Health Summary subscale is a 5-item Emotional Functioning subscale, a 5-item Social Functioning subscale, and a 5-item School Functioning sub-scale.  Parallel items are used across different age groups and for proxy and self-report versions, differing primarily in developmentally appropriate wording and the use of the first- and third-person tense. The response scale for each item is “never”,“almost never”, “sometimes”, “often”, and “almost always.

The PedsQL4.0 SF15 is composed of 15 items from the original instrument.  Items were retained if they loaded highly on their a priori conceptually derived subscale, based on a parent proxy-report factor analysis.  The short form can be scored as a 15-item Total Score, 5-item Physical Health Summary subscale, 10-item Psychosocial Health Summary subscale, 4-item Emotional Functioning subscale, 3-item Social Functioning subscale, and 3-item School Functioning subscale.

The PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales have been translated into over 60 languages.  This page summarizes psychometric properties we found related to the English versions.

There are a variety of condition specific modules available to combine with the PedsQL generic core that are not evaluated here.  These include:

• Arthritis module
• Asthma module
• Brain Tumor Module
• Cancer module
• Cardiac module
• Cerebral Palsy module
• Cognitive Functioning Scale
• Diabetes module
• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Module
• End Stage Renal Disease module
• Eosinophilic Esophagitis Module
• Eosinophilic Esophagitis Symptoms Scales
• Epilepsy Module
• Family Impact Module
• Gastrointestinal Symptoms Module
• Gastrointestinal Symptoms Scales
• General Well-Being Scale
• Health Care Satisfaction Generic Module
• Health Care Satisfaction Hematology/Oncology Specific Module
• Multidimensional Fatigue Scale
• Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Module
• Neuromuscular Module
• Oral Health Scale
• Rheumatology module
• Sickle Cell Disease Module
• Spinal Cord Injury Module
• Stem Cell Transplant Module
• Transplant Module