Pediatric Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (PQ-LES-Q): reliability and validity.

OBJECTIVE

The pediatric version of the Short Form of the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (PQ-LES-Q) was developed to aid in the assessment of an important aspect of life experience in children and adolescents.

METHOD

The reliability and validity of the PQ-LES-Q was tested using data from a sample of 376 outpatient children (6-11 years old) and adolescents (12-17 years old) with major depressive disorder.

RESULTS

The internal consistency coefficients at screening, baseline, and endpoint were high (0.87, 0.90, 0.89, respectively) as was the 1-week test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient of reliability (0.78). The correlations of the PQ-LES-Q total score with concurrent measures of severity of illness were in the moderate range (e.g., Global Clinical Impression of Severity, -0.40; Children's Global Assessment Scale, 0.36; Children's Depression Rating Scale total score, -0.45), as were the correlations with measures of change between baseline and endpoint (e.g., Clinical Global Impression of Severity, -0.34; Children's Global Assessment Scale, 0.33; Children's Depression Rating Scale total score, -0.45).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support the use of the PQ-LES-Q as an additional measure of current clinical status and outcome because it taps dimensions that are not covered by the commonly used global severity of illness or symptomatic measures.