A critical assessment of items on the Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index.

Objectives: Questions have been raised about the discriminative value of the three laboratory items (hematocrit, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and albumin) and three physical items (height, perirectal disease, and extraintestinal manifestations) included in the Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (PCDAI). The aim of this study was to analyze the value of these six "criticized" items to the discriminative properties of the PCDAI.

Methods: Data from 71 children with Crohn's disease visiting an outpatient clinic were analyzed.

Pediatricians overestimate importance of physical symptoms upon children's health concerns.

Objective: To compare the importance of issues of concern ranked by physicians and children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Materials And Methods: An item list consisting of 96 items-of-concern, identified by individual interviews and focus group sessions with 81 children with IBD, was administered to a second group of children with IBD (n = 117) asking them to rate the importance of each item to their lives on a 7-point scale. Twenty-one pediatric gastroenterologists experienced with treating children with IBD were asked to mark on the same questionnaire how important they thought each item was to their patients.

Are parents able to rate the symptoms and quality of life of their offspring with IBD?

The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of agreement between parents and their offspring with inflammatory bowel disease for the presence of symptoms and the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Factors influencing parent-child agreement were studied. Eighty-three Children and 81 parents separately filled out a five-item symptom card and a validated generic HRQOL instrument, which assesses seven domains of HRQOL, using the child and parent form.

Quality of life in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease measured by a generic and a disease-specific questionnaire.

Unlabelled: This study assessed the impact of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of children and adolescents, using both a generic and a disease-specific instrument. Three questionnaires were sent to all patients (8-18 y old) from the database of two large secondary/tertiary hospitals in the western part of The Netherlands. In total, 83 (66%) children responded, 18 were between 8 and 12 y old and the remaining 65 were older.

Measuring quality of life in children with inflammatory bowel disease: the impact-II (NL).

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic debilitating disorder. Measures of quality of life are only available for adult patient populations. We developed a new disease-specific health-related quality of life instrument in Dutch for pediatric patients with IBD, called Impact-II (NL).