Abstract
The whole family is affected when a child is ill. Families facing the same illness stressors respond in different ways and have different needs for healthcare. However, assessing a family's needs is difficult. Few instruments for assessment of families' health related quality of life, when a child in the family has a chronic illness, exist. The purpose of this study was to translate The PedsQL™ Family Impact Module from English into Swedish and to test the instrument in clinical practise. This process was done in four steps. Two forwards, independently translations were compared and outlined in a first version. This version was backwards translated and compared with the original version and outlined in a second version. Five parents tested through face to face interviews the translated instrument. The questionnaire was field-tested in 103 parents to children with diabetes (aged 4–19), consecutively sampled when their child visited a children hospital in Sweden for their regular diabetes check. Internal consistency reliability alpha coefficient for the Swedish version of The PedsQL™ Family Impact Module (36 items) exceeded all scales the minimum reliability standard of 0.70. The instrument is suggested to be useful in quality improvement work and may be a help to identify families with chronic illness in need of support.