Measuring the Quality of Life of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Measuring the quality of life (QOL) of children and adolescents is important for evaluating clinical trials and health systems and services. While there are now a range of psychometrically sound generic and condition-specific QOL instruments for children with a range of conditions, key challenges remain in terms of (a) understanding and interpreting discrepancies between child self-reports and parent-proxy reports and (b) demonstrating that a QOL instrument is sensitive to change. Further research is required to inform the development of preference-based QOL instruments, which are increasingly sought after, and the generation of evidence demonstrating that generic and condition-specific QOL ..