Validação, adaptação e avaliação de um instrumento para medir qualidade de vida em crianças a partir de oito meses de idade até cinco anos

摘要

Introduction: Presently, several researchers have studied Health-Related Quality of Life in Pediatrics. In developing countries, there is a deficit in having available these instruments, since the process for adaptation and validation is long and requires a thorough evaluation. The monitoring of QOL in children with validated instruments is a new area in pediatrics and there are few studies especially targeted at children below the age of five years. TAPQOL is an instrument directed towards children aged up to five years, developed in Holland which assesses the quality of life of this population. Objective: To translate, culturally adapt and validate the content of TAPQOL (Preschool Children Quality of Life) to assess quality of life of children aged from 8 months to five years old. Method: The process of translation and adaptation had five stages: (1) translation; (2) retrotranslation; (3) technical review and evaluation of semantic equivalence; (4) validation of content by professionals; (5) evaluation of the instrument reliability. Results: A total of 128 members of children’s families were interviewed; 35 children were younger than 18 months, and 93 were older than 18 months. In the sample studied, 61 children were female, and 67 were male; 83 percent of the family members that answered the instrument were the children’s mothers. Cronbach’s alpha values varied from 0. 91-0. 92 for the 46 items answered by the whole sample (N=128), showing the instrument has high internal consistency. Conclusions: The instrument has shown to be valid and reliable for the assessment of quality of life of children younger than five, when adapted for its Portuguese-Brazilian version.