Commentary on Evidence-based assessment of health-related quality of life and functional impairment in pediatric psychology
Abstract
Christine Eiser, PHD University of Sheffield Increases in survival rates of once life-threatening conditions (e.g., childhood cancer), coupled with awareness of the potentially iatrogenic nature of modern medicine has led to increasing calls to consider the childâs health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in addition to length of survival. To meet this need, a number of patient-reported outcomes have been reported. The recent burgeoning of such measures creates some confusion for researchers and clinicians struggling to identify the ââbestââ available measure. The article by Palermo et al. (this issue) sets out to survey the measures most frequently identified by pediatric psychologists and evaluate their quality. It complements related reviews concerning conceptualization and measurement of HRQOL. Of note, is the attempt to bring together not only measures of HRQOL but also measures of functional impairment (FI). Sixteen commonly used measures of HRQOL and FI are identified and critiqued, resulting in eight recommendations regarding future assessment. Recommendations include, first, the continuing need for improved psychometric information. Although 12 measures were assessed as âwell-established,â this was largely based on psychometric criteria (reliability and validity). Other requirements (e.g., proxy and child parallel reports; brevity) considered essential (Eiser & Morse, 2001) were not characteristic