Reliability and validity of the Child Health QuestionnairePF-50 for European children with cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the psychometric performance of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

METHOD

818 parents of children with CP, aged 8-12 from nine regions of Europe completed the CHQ (parent form 50 items). Functional abilities were classified using the five-level Gross Motor Function Classification Scheme (Levels I-III as ambulant; Level IV-V as nonambulant CP).

RESULTS

Ceiling effects were observed for a number of subscales and summary scores across all Gross Motor Function Classification System levels, whilst floor effects occurred only in the physical functioning scale (Level V CP). Reliability was satisfactory overall. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed a seven-factor structure for the total sample of children with CP but with different factor structures for ambulant and nonambulant children.

CONCLUSION

The CHQ has limited applicability in children with CP, although with judicious use of certain domains for ambulant and nonambulant children can provide useful and comparable data about child health status for descriptive purposes.