The Parent Cough Specific Quality of Life (PC-QoL) questionnaires measure the impact of a child’s cough on parental wellbeing and daily life while mirroring the changes in acute cough severity.
A chronic or acute cough can be very distressing and have a significant effect on children and their families. Young children can have difficulty verbally expressing themselves adequately, so it is common practice for parents to be proxy assessors of their young child’s medical condition. Parents are affected by their child’s medical condition and thus their own quality of life is also relevant. Quality of Life measures are now considered essential for high-quality clinical research and intervention and help healthcare professionals reliably measure and evaluate the efficacy of their proposed intervention.
The PC-QoL questionnaires are the first fully validated children’s cough-specific quality of life questionnaires designed for paediatricians and parents. Strong empirical research has proven them to be reliable and valid for assessing the effect of a child’s chronic cough and demonstrated sensitivity to change. The questionnaires align with the World Health Organisation domains of psychological, physical, and social functioning, and their length and psychometric properties have enhanced uptake and routine use in clinical practice and research.
Available questionnaires
- PC-QoL-27: the full-scale questionnaire for parents of children with chronic cough
- PC-QoL-8: the short-form version of PC-QOL-27 (8-item questionnaire)
- PAC-QoL: the Parent-proxy Children’s Acute Cough-specific QoL questionnaire.
To find out more or to licence a questionnaire, visit the website here.