Young traffic victims' long-term health-related quality of life: child self-reports and parental reports

OBJECTIVES: To describe the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) reported by young traffic injury victims and to assess the child-parent agreement on the child's HRQOL. DESIGN: Cohort study with a mean follow-up of 2.4 years. SETTING: Traumatology department in a university hospital in The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: All traffic injury victims treated at the traumatology department in 1996-1997 and aged 8 to 15 years at follow-up (N = 254). The data of 157 child-parent pairs were available for analysis (mean follow-up age, 12+/-2.4 y; 57% boys; 24% hospitalized). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: TNO-AZL Children's Quality of Life parent and child questionnaires. RESULTS: Young traffic injury victims reported a significantly lower HRQOL in the motor and autonomy scales compared with contemporaries in the reference group. The child-parent agreement ranged from low to moderate (intraclass correlations,.35-.67). A comparison made between the children and their parents found that the children were more negative regarding the physical complaints and the motor, autonomy, and positive-emotion scales. CONCLUSIONS: Young traffic injury victims reported a reasonably good long-term HRQOL, and, surprisingly, few psychologic problems were revealed. Physicians who rely only on parental reports may overestimate the child's HRQOL, especially when assessing the physical functioning. The child's own reports should not be neglected in the assessment of a comprehensive picture of the child's HRQOL.