Validation of the German Glasgow children’s benefit inventory

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to validate the German Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory (GCBI) in children with different surgical interventions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The GCBI was translated by using accepted forward-backward translation techniques and mailed to 741 parents whose children underwent either an otorhinolaryngological (n = 641) or an urological intervention (n = 100). The assessment was performed in a retrospective manner at the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria between January and March 2006. An exploratory principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation using factor loadings of >or=0.40 to allocate items to a scale was performed. Frequencies, means and standard deviations were used to describe patient, clinical, sociodemographic, and scale characteristics. RESULTS: The questionnaire was completed and returned by 325 patients (43.9%). The GCBI showed a high internal consistency (alpha = 0.84). The four-factor solution, emotional, vitality, learning and physical health explained 55.7% of variance. CONCLUSION: The German version of the GCBI was proven to be valid and reliable. It is suitable for subjective outcome analysis of different paediatric interventions from infants to adolescents.