Application of PedsQLTM Questionnaires to the Evaluation of Quality of Life in Families with Children with Selected Diagnoses

The evaluation of the quality of life is an important component of considering biopsychosocial situations in children suffering from chronic diseases. Design: Pilot study The sample group and methods: Children with diagnoses Diabetes Mellitus, Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Cerebral Palsy (CP) were monitored together with their parents. The control group comprised ten healthy children and their parents. PedsQL questionnaires, marked PedsQL 4.0, PedsQL 2.0 - family module, were employed. The so called survey questionnaire was used for the quantitative research. The qualitative research was implemented with the help of a semi-structured dialogue with parents. The statistical processing was based on non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis Tests/for independent sampling) and Wilcoxon Test (paired comparison). In all the tests, the significance level (alpha) of 0.05 was chosen. The qualitative research was processed by the Atlas.ti program with establishing 600 open codes and with origination of nine categories. Conclusion: Differences in the score axis in five groups of respondents resulted in refusing the zero hypothesis H0, i.e. the results were different throughout the questionnaires. The results of five paired subgroups demonstrated that there were most frequent differences between controls and subgroups of children with autism and ADHD. Results of the qualitative research are summarized in the section Results. PedsQL (TM) questionnaires were applicable to all the families. Children with the autistic spectrum disorder encountered problems with the PedsQL (TM) questionnaire - they were unable to complete the questionnaire and they did not understand the questionnaire scale.