PEDIATRICS Vol. 104 No. 6 December 1999, p. e71

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Reliability and Validity of the Children's Health Survey for Asthma

Received Apr 29, 1999; accepted Jun 24, 1999.

Linda Asmussen^*, Lynn M. Olson^*, Evalyn N. Grant^{, §}, Joanne Fagan, and Kevin B. Weiss

From the ^* Center for Child Health Research, American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, Illinois; the  Center for Health Services Research, and the ^§ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Objective.  Describe the psychometric properties of the Children's Health Survey for Asthma (CHSA) a condition-specific, self-report, functional health measure for parents of children 5 to 12 years of age with chronic asthma.

Method.  Data from two cross-sectional and one longitudinal study were used to assess internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, and validity of the CHSA. Over 275 parents and guardians of children with asthma completed the CHSA in one of three studies. The combined samples included a heterogenous mix of respondents by child age and race/ethnicity and parental marital and socioeconomic status. Five domain scores were computed: physical health, activity (child), activity (family), emotional health (child), and emotional health (family). Raw scale scores were transformed from 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating better or more positive outcomes.

Results.  Across the three samples, mean scale scores ranged from a low of 61.5 (emotional health of the child) to a high of 86.1 (activity [family]). Internal consistency reliability for each of the scales was high (Cronbach's  = .81-.92), and test-retest reliability (correlation between forms) ranged from .62 to .86. Significant differences in mean scores for four of five scales were noted between those with low versus moderate to high recent symptom activity.

Conclusion.  In three tests, the CHSA displays strong reliability and validity. Descriptive statistics demonstrate a range of scale scores. Internal consistency is good to excellent and short-term test-retest reliability is good for each of the five scales. Construct validity is demonstrated by the ability of CHSA to distinguish levels of disease severity, defined by symptom activity.  Key words:  child, pediatric, asthma, functional outcomes, quality of life, health status, family.

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