Health related quality of life of Iranian children with type 1 diabetes: reliability and validity of the Persian version of the PedsQL™ Generic Core Scales and Diabetes Module

Background: The aim of this study was to measure health related quality of life (HRQOL) in Iranian children with type 1 diabetes and to test the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the PedsQL (TM) 4.0 Generic Core Scales and the PedsQL (TM) 3.0 Diabetes Module. Methods: Participants were 94 children and adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes for at least 3 months in Shiraz, southern Iran. Convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the PedsQL (TM) 4.0 Generic Core Scales and the PedsQL (TM) 3.0 Diabetes Module were assessed. Moreover, internal consistency was checked by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results: Cronbach's alpha for the PedsQL (TM) 4.0 Generic Core Scales and the PedsQL (TM) 3.0 Diabetes Module was greater than 0.80 both in the child self-report and parent proxy-report. Both generic and disease-specific versions of the PedsQL showed excellent convergent and acceptable discriminant validity except for ` diabetes symptoms' subscale in the child self-report of the disease-specific module. Moreover, Iranian children with diabetes, as compared with other countries, had lower HRQOL scores. Conclusions: While this study showed that the Persian version of the PedsQL (TM) 4.0 Generic Core Scales has good psychometric properties in children with type 1 diabetes, the PedsQL (TM) 3.0 Diabetes Module needs some modifications to be used as a disease-specific quality of life (QOL) measure. Also, more support should be provided for the care of Iranian children with diabetes.