A new ARCH Lab paper titled “Equivalence of psychiatric structured interviews and symptom checklists in predicting health-related quality of life in children with chronic physical illness“, recently published in Quality of Life Research reveals that symptom checklists may be just as effective as structured interviews in identifying psychiatric disorders and predicting health-related quality of life (HRQL) in children with chronic physical illnesses.
Using data from the Multimorbidity in Children and Youth Across the Life Course (MY LIFE) Study, this paper compared two widely used tools: the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID) and the Emotional Behavioural Scales (EBS). Analyzing data from 201 children aged 4–16, the researchers found that both tools produced similar prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders and showed no significant differences in predicting HRQL over a 24-month period.
Psychiatric comorbidity, regardless of instrument, was associated with lower child HRQL in parent-reported psychological well-being, autonomy & parent relations, and school environment over 24 months. Estimates of association between psychiatric disorder and HRQL were not significantly different between the measures, regardless of informant.
Symptom checklists, including the EBS, offer a practical opportunity to screen for and monitor psychiatric disorder in children with chronic physical illness as part of a comprehensive approach to integrated pediatric care.
