Question
Asked 24th Sep, 2016

Has anyone come across an outcome measure for use in Pediatric Sub-Saharan Africa?

Common Outcome Measures like the PEDI and WeeFIM were developed and validated for American children. I am very much interested in developing a culturally sensitive tool that can be used in Africa

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All Answers (7)

Margaret Mweshi
University of Zambia
Dear Deanna,
Thank you so much for your response. It has been greatly appreciated. I will try to download what you sent. Otherwise, if you have them in PDF or word documents, I will appreciate even more.
Kind Regards!
Dr Margaret Mweshi
Ted R Miller
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Depends on the age you are looking at and whether you want clinician assessment or parent assessment or self-assessment. For adolescents, both EQ5d (eg, the Jelsma scoring used in Kenya & Zimbabwe) and the WHOQoL-BREF work well. WHOQoL-BREF is widely validated with developing country adolescents. The Child Health Questinairre might also be worth a look.  HealthActCHQ. (2008). Child health questionnaire scoring and interpretation manual. Cambridge MA: HealthActCHQ Inc.
Margaret Mweshi
University of Zambia
Thanks Ted for your great contribution. My interest is in children between 0-5 years. The instruments mentioned are useful. I have been searching for instruments developed in Africa meaning using the norms of African children especially considering what happens the first years of a child's life. I have read a lot of reports on difficulties encountered in adaptations of measures with regards finding terms and words to replace that which is found in the original measures. It is only true that reliability and validity are always reduced in terms of psychometric properties. The inquiry is also meant to encourage African Researchers to be innovative in developing culturally sensitive tools that are available and can be accessed easily and maybe without costs given economic situations in most African countries.
Sections 2.3 and 2.4 of the chapter "Approaches to Assessment of Very Young Children in Africa in the Context of HIV" in the book "Neuropsychology of Children in Africa"  may be of interest.
It is available for download here:
Margaret Mweshi
University of Zambia
Thank you so much for such great information information. It is a "must read" book for me. I cannot download because maybe our University has not subscribed. I will see how I can access information or the entire book.
Kind Regards!

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