AD/HD Health Related Quality of Life Questionnaire Completed by Children or Adolescents

Assessing health-related quality of life (HQOL) for children or adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) to corroborate a diagnosis and monitor treatment outcomes, is usually relegated to parent, teacher and physician observation of the child/adolescent. Allowing adults to act as proxy reporters for children/adolescents increases the bias and contributes to subjective evaluation of the child/adolescent's HQOL. This article describes the development and validation of a HQOL scale that children or adolescents can complete themselves. The areas assessed included relationships with friends and family, reactions to medication, school achievement and ability to focus and attend. A factor analysis used to achieve construct validation yielded a 21 item scale. Reliability and criterion validation results were determined to be adequate. This new, short, self-report AD/HD HQOL scale for children and adolescents can be administered in a school setting or a physician's office by administrative staff to support other AD/HD assessment measures and monitor treatment outcomes. (Contains 2 tables.)