Assessing the Generalisability of the Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory in the United Kingdom

Purpose: To demonstrate the generalisability of the Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory in the United Kingdom.

Methods: Children and adolescents with heart disease were recruited from three tertiary paediatric cardiac centres in the United Kingdom and completed the Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory. Item response option variability, total and subscale scores, patterns of correlation, and internal consistency were compared between the three sites.

Results: A total of 1537 participants--768 children/adolescents and 769 parents--were evaluated from the three sites. Patterns of item response option variability were similar and acceptable for all samples--child, adolescent, parent of child, and parent of adolescent. Internal consistency was high (0.82-0.96) for all samples from each site, and item-subscale, subscale-subscale, subscale-total, and item-total correlations were moderate to excellent for each centre. Comparisons of patterns of subscale and total score correlations between the three sites revealed no significant differences.

Conclusion: Scores on the Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory are generalisable in the United Kingdom, supporting the use of this measure for multi-centre studies of health-related quality of life of children and adolescents with heart disease.