Quality of Life Issues in Pediatric Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease

It has been well established that children with a chronic disease, including those with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), report lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as compared to their healthy peers. Over the past 20 years there has been a significant emphasis on the development of measures of function and HRQOL for application in JIA and pediatric IBD. Several of the instruments currently used to assess HRQOL in children with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID), including the Juvenile Arthritis Quality of Life Questionnaire (JAQQ) and IMPACT questionnaire for pediatric IBD, were developed and validated by Canadian-based research teams. This review describes several disease-specific and generic instruments used to assess QOL in children with IBD or JIA. It also provides an overview of findings from several outcomes studies that applied the described tools in assessing HRQOL in children and adolescents with these conditions. (J Rheumatol 2011:38:Suppl 88; 20-5; doi:10.3899/jrheum.110905)