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Validity, reliability and discriminative capacity of an electronic quality of life instrument (Pelican) for childhood asthma in the Netherlands

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Abstract

Purpose

To assess psychometric properties of the Pelican instrument, an online Dutch self-administered Quality of Life instrument for childhood asthma for scientific and clinical use.

Methods

A cohort study was done in two asthma populations and healthy children. One asthma population had assessment at start, 4 and 8 weeks. The other asthma population and healthy children had one assessment. All children were aged 6–12 years. Children completed the Pelican instrument, Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire, feeling thermometer and Childhood Asthma Control Test. Lung function and fraction exhaled nitric oxide were measured. Parents completed Functional Status II, Asthma Control Questionnaire, Childhood Asthma Control Test questionnaires and symptom diaries. We assessed interpretability, structural validity, internal consistency, reliability, construct and discriminative validity of the Pelican instrument.

Results

Eighty-five asthmatic (mean age 8.5 years) and 49 healthy children (mean age 8.4 years) participated. The Pelican instrument has 5 domains with 21 items after factor analysis. Internal consistency was 0.89 (CI 0.85–0.92), domain reliability showed Cronbach’s α’s from 0.64 to 0.76 and item-to-scale correlations from 0.61 to 0.81. Test–retest reliability was confirmed ICC = 0.88 (CI 0.79–0.93). Construct validity was demonstrated by significant moderate correlations with other relevant asthma outcomes like PAQLQ (r = −0.59, p < 0.01). Discriminative capacity between controlled or uncontrolled asthma (t = 3.20, p < 0.01, Δ = 0.64) and asthma versus healthy subjects (t = 6.31, p < 0.01, Δ = 0.94) was found.

Conclusions

The psychometric properties of the Pelican instrument were acceptable in Dutch paediatric asthma patients between 6 and 12 years old.

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Abbreviations

ACQ:

Asthma Control Questionnaire

ATS:

American Thoracic Society

CAQ-B:

Childhood Asthma Questionnaire

C-ACT:

Childhood Asthma Control Test

CBCL/6-18:

Child Behaviour Checklist for children aged 6–18 years

ERS:

European Respiratory Society

FeNO:

Fraction exhaled Nitric Oxide

FEV1:

Forced expiratory volume in one second

FSII:

Functional Status II

FVC:

Forced vital capacity

GP:

General practitioner

HAY:

How Are You

HRQL:

Health-related quality of life

ICC:

Inter-class correlation

PAQLQ:

Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Instrument

Pelican:

Paediatric Electronic quality of Life Instrument for Childhood Asthma instrument in the Netherlands

PedQL:

Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Dutch Lung Foundation (previously Dutch Asthma Foundation). The authors would like to thank all participating children and their parents. We are also grateful to all general practitioners, pharmacists and others who helped recruiting participants and to J. Braspenning, V. Hulsman and P. Madge for the English translation process of the Pelican instrument. Moreover, we would like to thank the ‘Stichting Huisartsenlaboratorium’ (SHL), a regional diagnostic centre, for their help with the data collection. A special thanks goes to Nicol Orbon and Joke Grootens who managed the data collection of this study. Finally, we would like to thank Amadea Gloudemans (AG) and Sabine Wendt (SW), who interviewed the children and helped coding and analysing the interviews with participating children.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC), Route 117, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    S. van Bragt, L. van den Bemt, B. Thoonen & T. Schermer

  2. IQ Health Care, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC), route 114, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    J. Jacobs

  3. Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC), route 804, Postbus 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    P. Merkus

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  1. S. van Bragt
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Correspondence to S. van Bragt.

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van Bragt, S., van den Bemt, L., Thoonen, B. et al. Validity, reliability and discriminative capacity of an electronic quality of life instrument (Pelican) for childhood asthma in the Netherlands. Qual Life Res 23, 927–938 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0533-3

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