Validity of a modified standard gamble elicited from parents of a hospital-based cohort of children

Objectives: To examine the validity of a modified standard gamble (Mod SG) (nondeath baseline) by comparing these scores to SG (death baseline), time trade off (TTO), visual analog scale (VAS), Health Utilities Index (HUI), and Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ). Method: Respondents were parents of in-patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy and parents of children without cancer attending outpatient clinics. Construct validity was determined by comparing a priori hypotheses to actual correlations between measures. Discriminant validity was examined by anticipating that in-patients with cancer would have lower HRQL than outpatients. Results: 85 families were included. Both Mod SG and SG were moderately correlated with TTO (r = 0.50 and r = 0.49; P < .01 for both). Both Mod SG and SG were moderately correlated with TTO (r = 0.47, and r = 0.05, P < 0.002 for both). Conclusion: The Mod SG did not perform better than SG. Two nonoverlapping groups of HRQL measures were demonstrated. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.