The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions: A Measure Based on a Noncategorical Approach

Abstract

Objective. To report on the development of the Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions (QuICCC). This new instrument identifies children and adolescents who have chronic health conditions based on the noncategorical conceptual framework outlined in our earlier work. It uses the consequences of conditions as a method for identifying children with chronic health conditions and is completely independent of diagnosis. Method. Through a combination of techniques, we developed and piloted items and created 39 brief question sequences that were designed to be administered to a parent or guardian of children <18 years of age. The prototype was field tested extensively and refined using data from local hospital-based samples representing 318 households and 666 children. The instrument was then administered to two large representative samples (local: 657 households, 1275 children; national: 712 households, 1388 children) to establish validity and reliability. Results. Content, convergent, construct, and criterion validity each have been demonstrated. The QuICCC has good test-retest reliability. Parents find the questions easy to answer. It took 7 to 8 minutes on average to obtain information about all the children in a family. The QuICCC successfully identified children with a wide range of different conditions that are usually considered chronic, and excluded those with acute illnesses and those with conditions but no current consequences. Conclusions. The Questionnaire for Identifying Children with Chronic Conditions is a practical instrument that can be used for epidemiological purposes. It offers considerable flexibility and has many potential applications in health care delivery research.