Validation of the paediatric food allergy quality of life questionnaire (PFA-QL)

Knibb, Rebecca C., Ibrahim, Nur F., Petley, Rachel, Cummings, Amanda J., King, Rosemary M., Roberts, Graham, Erlewyn-Lajeunesse, Michel and Lucas, Jane S.A. (2013) Validation of the paediatric food allergy quality of life questionnaire (PFA-QL). Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 24 (3), 288-292. (doi:10.1111/pai.12060). (PMID:23590419)

Abstract

Background
The Paediatric Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire (PFA-QL) was the first tool to be developed for assessing health-related quality of life (QoL) in children with food allergy. It has been used in a number of published studies, but has not been validated.

Objective
The aim of the current study was to validate child (PFA-QL) and parent-proxy (PFA-QL-PF) versions of the scale in a specialist allergy clinic and in parents of children with food allergy.

Methods
For the clinic sample, a generic QoL scale (PedsQL) and the PFA-QL were completed by 103 children (age 6-16 yrs) with peanut or tree nut allergy; test-retest reliability of the PFA-QL was tested in 50 stable patients. For the non-clinical sample, 756 parents of food allergic children completed the PFA-QL-PF, the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-PF50), Food Allergy Quality of Life Parental Burden Scale (FAQL-PB) and a Food Allergy Impact Measure.

Results
The PFA-QL and PFA-QL-PF had good internal consistency (?'s of 0.77-0.82), and there was moderate-to-good agreement between the generic- and disease-specific questionnaires. The PFA-QL was stable over time in the clinic sample, and in both samples, girls were reported to have poorer QoL than boys.

Conclusions
The PFA-QL and PFA-QL-PF are reliable and valid scales for use in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Unlike other available tools, they were developed and validated in the UK and thus provide a culture-specific choice for research, clinical trials and clinical practice in the UK. Validation in other countries is now needed.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Graham Roberts

Author: Jane S.A. Lucas

Download statistics