Mini version of the pediatric asthma quality of life questionnaire (MiniPAQLQ): Validity among thai asthmatic children

Background: The assessment of the quality of life among patients and their parents is increasingly recognized as an important chronic disease such as asthma. Objective: The present study assessed the validity and reliability of the Thai Mini PAQLQ in Thai asthmatic children by comparison with the PAQLQ. Material and Method: The authors performed a 9-week Descriptive cross sectional study. The mini PAQLQ (Thai version) consists of 11 items which are categorized into symptoms, activities, emotions. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test for internal consistency reliability. The Pearson’s correlation co-efficients was used to test Criterion validity. Results: 58 patients, aged 7-17 years were recruited in the study. 45 patients completed the study. The mean age of patients was 10.5±2.7 years. The intraclass correlation between PAQLQ and MiniPAQLQ for total, activities and symptoms were moderately strong except in emotion domain (ICC = 0.65). The correlations between the PAQLQ and MiniPAQLQ were 0.80-0.72. Both quality of life questionnaires correlated strongly with the asthma control questionnaire but not with PEFR. Conclusion: The MiniPAQLQ is valid and reliable when compared to the PAQLQ. It can be used with confidence for monitoring in a pediatric asthma clinic.