Pediatric Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (PedsQL)
What It Measures
The PedsQL asks a child, and separately their parent, how much of a problem each of twenty-three everyday things has been over the past month. Running, lifting something heavy, worrying about what will happen, getting along with other children, keeping up in class.
Four areas are covered: physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning, and school functioning. Each item is rated from never a problem to almost always a problem, then reverse-scored and converted to a 0-to-100 scale so higher means better quality of life. Alongside the total, two summary scores are reported: physical health, and psychosocial health, which combines the emotional, social, and school items.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Licensing is tiered by user type — academic and non-funded student research is generally free on registration, while funded academic, non-profit, and commercial use carry fees that scale with the project. The CSV's $9,500 figure reflects the upper end of that structure, not a flat price. Check "Conditions of Use" at pedsql.org before assuming a cost.
Learn More: The PedsQL is modular. The 23-item Generic Core Scales described above are the base, and dozens of disease-specific modules attach to them — cancer, cerebral palsy, asthma, diabetes, and many others — so a child can be compared both against healthy peers and against others with the same condition.