Validation of healthcare professional proxy-reported children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale

Objective The objective was to describe the reliability and validity of the healthcare professional proxy-report version of the Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES). Methods We included pediatric patients who were between 4 and 21 years of age and scheduled to undergo hematopoietic cell transplantation. Mucositis was evaluated by trained healthcare professionals who scored ChIMES, the World Health Organization oral toxicity scale, mouth, and throat pain visual analogue scale, National Cancer Institute-Common Terminology Criteria and the Oral Mucositis Daily Questionnaire. Measures were completed daily and evaluated on days 7-17 post-stem cell infusion for this analysis. Psychometric properties examined were internal consistency, test-retest reliability (days 13 and 14), and convergent construct validity. Results There were 192 participants included. Cronbach's alpha was 0.90 for ChIMES Total Score and 0.93 for ChIMES Percentage Score. Test-retest reliability were as follows: intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.82 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.85) for ChIMES Total Score and ICC 0.82 (95% CI 0.77-0.86) for ChIMES Percentage Score. In terms of construct validation, all correlations between measures met or exceeded those hypothesized (all p < 0.05). Conclusions The healthcare professional proxy-report version of ChIMES is reliable and valid for children and adolescents undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation.