Clinical experience and psychometric properties of the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI), 1995-2012

Abstract

The Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) is a widely used questionnaire to measure the quality of life of children aged from 4 to 16 years. The purpose of this review is to summarize all published data regarding the clinical experience of the CDLQI and its psychometric properties as a single reference source for potential users. A literature search was carried out to identify all articles describing the use of the CDLQI from 1995 to November 2012. One hundred and six articles were identified, with four excluded. The CDLQI has been used in 28 countries in 102 clinical studies and is available in 44 languages, including six cultural adaptations; a cartoon version is available in 10 languages. It has been used in 14 skin conditions and used in the assessment of 11 topical drugs, nine systemic drugs, 13 therapeutic interventions and two epidemiological and other studies. There is evidence of high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, responsiveness to change, and significant correlation with other subjective and objective measures. Rasch analysis has not been carried out and more information is needed concerning minimal clinically important difference; these are areas requiring further study.

Correlation between Objective SCORAD and Three-Item Severity Score Used by Physicians and Objective PO-SCORAD Used by Parents/Patients in Children with Atopic Dermatitis

“…Only a few studies have examined the correlation between the Objective SCORAD and the QoL in children <4 years old using the IDQoL, and the conclusions of those studies are conflicting [25,26,27,28,38,39]. We found that the subjective QoL scores of the children were positively correlated with the objective severity assessments of AD when using the Objective SCORAD, with a significant and good correlation in both the older and the younger age group.…”

The Evolution of Quality of Life Assessment and Use in Dermatology

“…In order to allow interpretation of the СDLQI scores a banding system was validated [17]. The CDLQI has been translated into different languages and used in many studies [18]. It remains the only dermatology-specific QoL instrument for this age group.…”

Quality of life impact of childhood skin conditions measured using the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI): a meta-analysis

“…The scoring for each question is "Very much"[Score = 3], "Quite a lot" [2], "Only a little" [1], "Not at all"[0], "Blank"[0], and Q7 -"prevented school" [3]. The 10 individual question scores are summed to provide a total CDLQI score; the maximum possible score is 30, indicating maximum impact on QoL.…”

“…Figure 2 highlights the QoL impact severity bands (4). Six studies describing cross cultural adaptations and validation of the CDLQI were identified by Salek et al (3) and summarised in the Table 6 of their detailed review of CDLQI usage.…”

“…The Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) was developed to measure the impact of skin disease on QoL in children (2). The CDLQI has been used in over 102 studies (3) and is the most widely used dermatology specific instrument for measuring QoL in children (3). Score band descriptors allow interpretation of the meaning of CDLQI scores (4).…”