Turkish Validity and Reliability of the PedsQL 13-24-month-old Infant Quality of Life Scale

Objectives:The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) infant quality of life scale 13-24 month form (PedsQL 13-24) is a general quality of life scale. In this study, the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale were examined.Materials and Methods:A total of 224 infants (141 healthy, 44 acutely ill, 39 chronically ill) who were 13-24 months old were included in the study. Socio-demographic data form, PedsQL 13-24 form and SF-36 form were used. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 23.0 and SPSS AMOS programs. Internal consistency of the scale was calculated by Cronbach’s alpha value and sub-dimension correlations. Before the construct validity analysis, sample size adequacy was calculated with the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient, and then confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed.Results:PedsQL 13-24 total score was 83.93±9.98 in the healthy group, 75.71±13.1 in acutely ill patients, 67.48±14.28 in chronically ill patients. There was a significant difference between the groups. The Cronbach’s alpha value for the scale total score was 0.939. Cronbach’s alpha values for physical function, physical symptom, emotional function, social function and cognitive function sub-dimensions were 0.884, 0.836, 0.879, 0.808 and 0.899, respectively. All sub-dimensions displayed moderate- strong significant correlations with each other. In addition, the KMO coefficient was 0.889, and accordingly, the X2/df ratio was 2.102 and the RMSEA value was 0.07 in the CFA analysis performed according to the original factor structure. Finally, PedsQL 13-24 total scores displayed weak-moderate significant correlations with their parents’ SF-36 subscale scores.Conclusion:In this study, the internal consistency of the PedsQL 13-24 Turkish form was similar to the original study, and the original factor structure was acceptable. In other words, the results supported the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale. It was also shown that there was a positive correlation between the quality of life of infants and their parents.