OBJECTIVE

To assess the psychometric performance of the Child Health Utility (CHU9D) proxy version compared with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) in Australian children aged 0-7 years with anorectal malformations (ARM) or Hirschsprung disease (HD).

METHODS

Parents of children with ARM or HD were identified from a patient database managed by a tertiary paediatric hospital in Australia over the past 20 years. Since 2020, CHU9D and PedsQL proxy report versions were administered to parents via telephone interview. Using data collected between 2020 and 2022, we assessed the feasibility, ceiling and floor effects, known-group validity and convergent validity for both instruments in the total sample, by conditions and child age.

RESULTS

The study included 145 children with ARM or HD, among which, 13.1% had missing values on the CHU9D schoolwork dimension, and 20.7% had missing values on the PedsQL school functioning domain (2-4 year old version). The CHU9D and PedsQL did not demonstrate ceiling effects. The CHU9D showed stronger effect size (ES) in differentiating children with ARM (ES = 0.32) or HD (ES = 0.90) with healthy children compared to the PedsQL. We did not find statistically significant differences in CHU9D or PedsQL scores between ARM and HD. There were moderate to strong correlations in most theoretically related dimensions of the CHU9D and PedsQL.

CONCLUSION

The CHU9D and PedsQL demonstrated comparable and acceptable psychometric properties in Australian children aged 2 years and above with ARM or HD. However, the validity of the CHU9D in children under 2 years old needs to be further explored and modification may be needed.