Assessment of the Quality of Life of Children

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Abstract
Quality-of-life measures in adults have received increasing attention in recent years and have been used for a number of different purposes and in varied circumstances. In health care particularly, they have been used as a useful addition to other outcome measures, and there are now several measures that are widely used. There are fewer available measures for clinicians working with children, and none that is widely used. Most of the existing measures for children utilize an adult model of quality of life. The rationale and need for quality of life measures for children are reviewed, and special issues relevant to the measurement of quality of life in children are discussed. The article also contains descriptive reviews of some of the available measures for children. We conclude that problems in existing measures must raise concerns about the practical implications of their use in making health-policy decisions or in allocating resources, though they show promise for use in the evaluation of treatments.