Quality of life
Quality of life was assessed by PedsQlTM4.0
questionnaire applied according to the age group. This questionnaire has
versions for five to seven years old (answered by their parents), eight
to twelve years old and thirteen to eighteen years old. The domains are
physical, emotional, social and school aspects. Each problem was asked
for the adolescent or parents in the last month on a five-level response
scale (0 = never a problem; 1 = almost never a problem; 2 = sometimes a
problem; 3 = often a problem; 4 = almost always a problem). For children
aged 5 to 7, the scale is simplified to three points (1 = not at all; 2
= sometimes; 3 a lot), with each answer anchored on a similar scale
visual with happy, neutral and sad faces respectively. The items are
score-reverse and linearly transformed to a scale from 0 to 100 (0 =
100, 1 = 75, 2 = 50, 3 = 25, 4 = 0). Therefore, high scores indicate
better QOL. PedsQl TM4.0 scores are computed by adding
the items divided by the number of items answered.16,17