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Development of the pediatric advanced care quality of life scale (PAC‐QoL): Evaluating comprehension of items and response options
Author(s) -
Morley Tara Elise,
Cataudella Danielle,
Fernandez Conrad V.,
Sung Lillian,
Johnston Donna Lynn,
Nesin April,
Zelcer Shayna
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.25111
Subject(s) - respondent , toddler , medicine , comprehension , quality of life (healthcare) , scale (ratio) , population , blood cancer , clinical psychology , cancer , developmental psychology , psychology , nursing , environmental health , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , political science , law
Background Validated tools that measure quality of life (QOL) for children with poor prognosis malignancies are not available. We are developing a novel instrument, The Pediatric Advanced Care‐Quality of Life Scale (PAC‐QoL), in order to address this gap. Instrument development requires a phase of item reduction and assessment of item comprehension in the target population. This manuscript provides a report on this phase in the development of the PAC‐QoL. Procedure Children with poor prognosis cancer and/or their parents were invited to participate in cognitive probing interviews. Participants' understanding of each item was rated from 0 (did not understand) to 4 (completely understood). To evaluate the response scale, an overall percentage of respondents' ability to accurately distinguish between the four response options was calculated. Results Four age‐ and reporter‐specific versions of the PAC‐QoL were tested with 74 participants. Mean (±SD) comprehension scores across versions ranged from 3.40 ± .0.30 (child self‐report) to 3.69 ± 0.23 (parent of toddler report). The number of items deleted or modified to improve understandability ranged from 46% of all items on the parent‐of‐child report to 56% for the child and adolescent self‐reports. Respondent's abilities to accurately distinguish between response‐scale options ranged from 84% (child‐report) to 98% (parent‐toddler report). Conclusions We demonstrate a high degree item understandability and response‐scale separation in the current version of the PAC‐QoL. The scale is ready for psychometric evaluation in its target population. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014; 61:1835–1839. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.