Validação linguística e cultural da versão brasileira do TNO-AZL pre-school quality of life questionnaire (TAPQOL) para crianças em idade pré-escolar

Abstract

The assessment of quality of life has become an important part of evaluating health programs. In recent years, several instruments emerged for a pediatric population. The TNO-AZL Preschool Children`s Quality of Life questionnaire (TAPQOL) was the first questionnaire developed to meet the need for a reliable and valid instrument for measuring parent`s perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in preschool children trough 12 domains weighted by the impact of the health status problems on well-being of the children. Objective : The aim of this study was to translate and evaluate the psychometric performance of the Brazilian original version of TAPQOL. Methods : The translation process consisted of translation, back-translation and committee review. In the pre-testing stage, a sample of 10 parents answered the questionnaire in order to check for errors or deviations in the translations. A total of 255 parents/guardians of children between 2 months and 5 years old participated in this study responding some clinical, social questions and the questionnaire, monitored in a pediatric pulmonologist clinic and two schools in the city of Caxias do Sul. Within a period of 15 days or more, 78 parents repeated the TAPQOL questionnaire. The validity was assessed by means of divergent validity (health/sickness). Reability was assessed by determining internal consistency (Crombach`s alpha coefficient) and reprodutibily (intraclass correlation coefficient) and discriminatory power (floor/ceiling effects). Results : The mean age was 30 months, and 50, 2% of the children were male. The age of the respondents was 36 for fathers and 32 for mothers. The mean of the domains was good for most part of then, except for problem behaviour, anxiety and sleep. The Crombach`s alpha coefficient was acceptable (&#8805;0,7 for most part of the domains), except for anxiety and liveliness. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0,859 (range: 0,752-0,921). The floor effect was < 15%, and the ceiling effect was biggest because different domains didn`t interfere in the quality of life. Conclusion : The Brazilian Portuguese-language version of the TAPQOL showed good psychometric performance, confirming its cultural adequacy for use in Brazil.