Design and validation of the ECAVINAE-LICCE scale to evaluate quality of life in children and adolescents with epilepsy.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a scale to evaluate the quality of life in children and adolescents with epilepsy. METHODS: Scale validation, multicentered, three-phase study. We did a literature review for the construction of the instrument, and a validation of appearance, construct, criterion, and reproducibility. We evaluated the scale among the patients that consulted at the Liga Central contra la Epilepsia and the Fundación Hospital de La Misericordia (Bogotá, Colombia) between 2014 and 2015. RESULTS: The resulting questionnaire has 4 domains, with 18-26 items according to age groups (0-3, 4-10 and 11-17 years old) and a Likert scale score from 1 to 5. The comparison with CAVE and QOLIE AD 48 was adequate (Pearson correlation coefficient between 0.713 and 0.837 according to age groups intraclass correlation coefficient between 0.664 and 0.817.) Internal consistency was adequate (Cronbach's alpha between 0.791 and 0.809). Test-retest assessment was good, with Spearman's coefficient between 0.99 and 1.00. The time to fill out the scale ranged between 3.5 and 6.8 min. SIGNIFICANCE: We designed and validated a quality-of-life scale in Spanish for children and adolescents with epilepsy, which is easy and quick to fill and has excellent reliability and validity parameters.