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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1398944

Pictures versus words: Can we use a pictorial scale to measure child health-related quality of life?

Provisionally accepted
  • The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, SAR China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is important because it can serve as an indicator or a predictor of subsequent mortality or morbidity. HRQoL has been shown to be directly related to child growth and development and indirectly related to the healthcare costs of young children. Existing measures of HRQoL in children have heavily relied on traditional questionnaires that use age-suited versions or parent proxy questionnaires. However, both of these methods may present with different types of biases and may misrepresent underlying HRQoL. The current mini reivew will first illustrate these methodological limitations and highlight the potential use of pictorial scales in addition to discussing their suitability for specifically measuring HRQoL as an alternative. We will also synthesize existing recommendations on the development of pictorial scales to provide a protocol as a recommendation to researchers who are aiming to develop an overall HRQoL pictorial scale that is suited for children.

    Keywords: Pictorial Scales, health-related quality of life, wellbeing, Child, Pictorial Scale Development

    Received: 11 Mar 2024; Accepted: 12 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tang, Wong, Li and Chan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tracy C. Tang, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, SAR China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.