The development of HRQOL instruments for children and adolescents has continued apace in recent years, particularly with regard to disease-specific questionnaires. Many of the instruments meet accepted standards for psychometric properties, although instrument developers should include children from the beginning of the development process and need to pay particular attention to testing sensitivity to change.

Objectives: To compare health related quality of life (HRQL) between native and immigrant adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, and to analyse psychosocial factors associated with HRQL. Design: A cross sectional study of adolescents (12-18 years old) who answered a self administered questionnaire. Setting: All the secondary schools from Lloret de Mar (Girona, Spain). Participants: 1246 participants (88.9% of the eligible students). Main outcome measures: Main outcome was the Spanish version of the Vecu et Sante Percue de l'Adolescent (VSP-A), a HRQL measure addressed to adolescents. Mean scores of the VSP-A index of natives and immigrants were compared, as well as their sociodemographic and health related factors. Multiple regression examined the relation between HRQL and psychosocial factors, controlling for the effect of socioeconomic variables. Results: Half of the sample were boys, in the middle socioeconomic status, and 18.2% were immigrants (n = 226). HRQL score was higher in native Spanish adolescents than immigrants (p,0.01). Multiple regression model explaining 48.1% of the VSP-A variance showed that migration in itself has no statistically significant impact on HRQL, and age, socioeconomic status, social support, discrimination, and psychological distress do play a part. Conclusions: Migrants have worse HRQL than natives but it seems to be mediated by their disadvantage in socioeconomic status, social support, and psychological distress.

Background The EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D), developed in 1990, is a most widely used generic tool to measure the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and considered suitable for patients with asthma. In 2009, the EuroQol Group developed a new EQ-5D version to overcome limitations related to its consistently reported high ceiling effect. To enhance the sensitivity for assessing the HRQoL in further patient populations, the number of responses of EQ-5D was increased from 3 to 5 levels (EQ-5D-5L). Moreover, the availability of well-defined requirements for its Web-based administration allows EQ-5D-5L use to monitor the HRQoL in electronic health (eHealth) programs. No study has evaluated the metric properties of the new EQ-5D-5L in patients with asthma yet. Objective This study aims to examine the distribution, construct validity, and reliability of the new EQ-5D-5L questionnaire administered online to adults with asthma. Methods We evaluated patients with asthma (age: 18-40 years) from a primary care setting in France and England, who self-completed the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire online. The inclusion criteria were persistent asthma defined as >6 months of prescribed inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonists or inhaled corticosteroids alone during the 12 months prior to inclusion. The EQ-5D index was obtained by applying the English preference value set for the new EQ-5D-5L and the French 3L-5L crosswalk value set. Both value sets produced single preference-based indices ranging from 1 (best health state) to negative values (health states valued as worse than death), where 0=death, allowing the calculation of quality-adjusted life years. Responses to dimensions and index distribution, including ceiling and floor effects, were examined. The construct validity was assessed by comparing the means of known groups by analyses of variance and calculation of effect sizes. Results Of 312 patients answering the baseline Web-based survey, 290 completed the EQ-5D-5L (93%). The floor effect was null, and the ceiling effect was 26.5% (74/279). The mean EQ-5D-5L index was 0.88 (SD 0.14) with the English value set and 0.83 (SD 0.19) with the French 3L-5L crosswalk value set. In both indices, large effect sizes were observed for known groups defined by the Asthma Control Questionnaire (1.06 and 1.04, P <.001). Differences between extreme groups defined by chronic conditions ( P =.002 and P =.003 for the English value set and French 3L-5L crosswalk value set, respectively), short-acting beta-agonists (SABAs) canisters in the last 12 months ( P =.02 and P =.03), or SABA use during the previous 4 weeks ( P =.03 and P =.01) were of moderate magnitude with effect sizes around 0.5. Conclusions The new EQ-5D-5L ...

The underlying theoretical model of the Spanish version of the CHIP-AE functions well in Spain, and the Spanish version has acceptable levels of convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Sensitivity to change and the use of the health profiles need to be assessed.

No remarkable differences in PRO appeared between modalities within each treatment. Nowadays, available evidence supports brachytherapy as possible alternative to radical prostatectomy for patients seeking an attempted curative treatment limiting the risk for urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction.