Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of the Russian-Language Version of the PedsQL Infant Scales Parental Questionnaire of Premature Infants Aged 13–24 Months: a Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Objectives. The PedsQL Infant Scales parental questionnaire has been developed to assess the health-related quality of life in premature infants. The questionnaire was translated into Russian, but the properties (reliability and validity) of the adapted version remained unexplored.
Objective. The aim of the study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Russian — language version of the PedsQL Infant Scales parental questionnaire in assessing HRQL in premature infants aged 13–24 months.
Methods. The study included parents of children aged 13–24 months who were born prematurely and were treated during the neonatal period in the intensive care unit (ICU). The Russian-language version of the PedsQL Infant Scales parental questionnaire was used to assess physical activity, physical symptoms, emotional state, social, cognitive activity and to obtain an overall assessment of the HRQL of premature infants. The internal consistency of the questionnaire (reliability) was assessed using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, Spearman-Brown coefficients, and Guttman split-half. To verify the construct validity and compliance of the questionnaire with the theoretical five-factor structure, a confirmatory factor analysis was done. Factor loads and model compliance indices were evaluated: CFI (Comparative Fit Index), TLI (Tucker – Lewis Index), SRMR (Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual) and relative χ² table (χ²/df).
Results. The results of a survey of parents (mothers) of 91 premature infants (gestational age 32.0 (29.5; 34.0) weeks) aged 16 (15; 19) months were analyzed. The duration of ICU hospitalization was 7 (4; 10) bed days, the duration of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) was 168 (120; 234) hours. The coefficient of internal consistency of the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire was 0.832, Spearman – Brown — 0.803, and Guttman split-half — 0.797. The relative 2 table is 2.1, CFI is 0.81, TLI is 0.799, and SRMR is 0.049. The overall assessment of HRQL was 77.6 (67.8; 84.3) points, the highest values were marked on the scale of “Physical Symptoms” — 87.5 (80.0; 92.5) points, the lowest — “Emotional Functioning”, 70.8 (60.4; 78.1) points, and “Cognitive Functioning”, 66.7 (55.6; 83.3) points. The overall PedsQL Infant Scales score was not related to gestational age (p = 0.224), duration of ICU hospitalization (p = 0.071), and duration of IMV (p = 0.670), but was lower in children who had suffered intraventricular hemorrhage with IMV.
Conclusion. Satisfactory reliability and constructive validity of the Russian-language version of the PedsQL Infant Scales parental questionnaire have been established. Considering the limits of the study (selection error, remote survey, small sample size), further linguistic and cultural validation of the questionnaire is recommended.

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