Child
Health Measurement Project
Children's
Health Survey for Asthma (CHSA)
Parent and Child-Report Versions Now Available!
The measurement of pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important and expanding area in health
care and health services research. Tools to assess functional status or HRQOL go beyond traditional physiological assessments
by incorporating a multidimensional definition of health that encompasses
physical, psychological and social aspects. Application of these measures
includes describing the health status of pediatric populations, examining
the outcomes of various conditions and treatment methods, and potentially
improving clinical decision-making by capturing the broader impact of
disease and treatment based on child and parent perspectives.
The prevalence of asthma in
the pediatric population, combined with the financial, social and emotional
costs to children and their families provided impetus for the development
of the Children's Health Survey for Asthma (CHSA).
Asthma-specific domains include:
- Physical
Health: Physical symptoms and pain experienced by the
child
- Activity:
Child and family's ability to carry out everyday activities
- Emotional
Health: Impact of asthma on the mental well-being of
both the child and family
Additional items cover health care utilization, asthma triggers, and family demographics.
The CHSA is a self-report measure completed by parents of children with chronic asthma between the ages of 5 and 16. Psychometric
properties of the CHSA have been published in Pediatrics 1999;104(6).
Over 600 copies of the parent-report
instrument have been disseminated to pediatricians and health services
researchers. The measure has also been used in several large, federally-funded
studies including the Pediatric Asthma Care PORT II.
- A child-report version of the CHSA (CHSA-C) has been developed and is now available! The CHSA can be used alone or as a companion to the child-completed CHSA-C.
- A US-Spanish
version of the CHSA is available. Linguistic validation was conducted by Mapi Research Institute and
included forward-backward translation by professional translators,
consolidation, and pilot testing. A full report on translation methods
is available by request.
- English CHSA and CHSA-C versions and the US Spanish CHSA version are available for use in non-commercial research or practice applications at no cost.
If you have questions about using
the CHSA or CHSA-C, please contact Senior Research Associate, Child Health
Measurement Project at dorchmp@aap.org
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