Assessing quality of life in Mexican-American children with asthma: Impact-on-family and functional status

Objective: To assess the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of two questionnaires, the Impact on Family (IOF) and the Functional Status II (R) (FSIIR), in a Mexican-American population of children with asthma. Methods: We interviewed 115 Hispanic parents of children with asthma and compared the IOF and FSIIR scores and reliability coefficients for the following subgroups: English or Spanish language and high or low educational level. We assessed the construct validity of the IOF Total score and FSIIR Illness score by examining the relationship between these scores and other health status variables. Results: The IOF Total score and FSIIR Illness score demonstrated acceptable construct validity and reliability for language and education subgroups, although several of the IOF subscales had low reliability. Conclusions: IOF Total score and FSIIR Illness score can be recommended for use by Spanish- and English- speaking Mexican-American respondents.