KIDSCREEN-27

The KIDSCREEN-27 was developed from the KIDSCREEN-52 and is an intermediate version of the KIDSCREEN questionnaires.

 

Please note: the KIDSCREEN is fully open-access. All available versions can be downloaded here.

 

Scope

 

With 27 items in five Rasch-scaled HRQoL dimensions, the KIDSCREEN-27 is the intermediate version of the KIDSCREEN questionnaires. This version can be used when various aspects of health-related quality of life in children and adolescents are to be surveyed, but the topic is not central to the study in question. In addition, this short form is a possible alternative for situations in which the concept is important but the long form cannot be used for pragmatic reasons (e.g., length of the questionnaire, respondents' ability to concentrate, etc.).

 

Development

 

The KIDSCREEN-27 was developed to create a shorter version of the KIDSCREEN-52 with a minimum of loss of information and with good psychometric properties. First, basic item analyses were computed. A psychometric approach used confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, and in a next step the item reduction process was performed on the background of item response theory (IRT) models. 

 

The KIDSCREEN-27 measures the following five dimensions:

  • Physical Well-Being (5 items)
  • Psychological Well-Being (7 items)
  • Autonomy and Parent Relations (7 items)
  • Peers and Social Support (4 items)
  • School Environment (4 items)

 

Psychometric Properties

 

The construct validity of the instrument is satisfactory: According to factor analysis, 56% of the variance can be explained. Reliability (Cronbach's alpha) is greater than 0.70 for all five dimensions. Analyses of construct validity point in the theoretically expected direction: girls show lower HRQoL scores in the dimensions of physical and psychological well-being; adolescents show lower HRQoL scores in all dimensions compared to children; children and adolescents with special health care needs as well as children and adolescents who spent more than one night in hospital in the last year show lower expressions in all dimensions of HRQoL than healthy children and adolescents.

 

Time to Complete Survey

 

The KIDSCREEN-27 takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete and provides a profile that allows interpretation of results on five different dimensions. A proxy measure for parents or primary caregivers is also available. For proper scoring and comparison with norm data, additional information can be found under Analysis.