Health Economics Unit EuroQol grant success: Extending the QUOKKA Multi-instrument comparison study for health-related quality of life of children

Professor Nancy Devlin and Associate Professor Kim Dalziel in collaboration with Associate Professor Brendan Mulhern (University of Technology Sydney) have been awarded an EuroQol large scale grant to extend the QUOKKA multi-instrument comparison study (MIC) for health-related quality (HRQoL) of life of children. They will be working with co-investigators Mike Herdman (Office of Health Economics, UK), Dr Janine Verstraete (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Professor Harriet Hiscock (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, MCRI) and in close collaboration with EuroQol working groups including the Young Persons Working Group and with QUOKKA co-investigators.

This study proposes to leverage and extend the QUOKKA-MIC study already funded by the Australian Government to compare a suite of paediatric generic and condition specific instruments in a sample of 4000 children and their carers with 1000 recruited through a tertiary Children’s Hospital. The QUOKKA-MIC will assess the acceptability, validity and responsiveness of measures but without a specific focus on EuroQol measures. This EuroQol research funding will allow the following additions to the QUOKKA-MIC study: further samples of children, a focus on EuroQol instruments, work on international psychometric testing protocols and a protocol for an international MIC study for children.