OBJECTIVES: The generic outcome measure (EQ-5D-Y-3L) was recently applied in a community-based need assessment study among children in low-income families. The aim of this study was to investigate the discriminant validity of the EQ-5D-Y between children-reported HRQoL and their parent-reported developmental disabilities.

METHODS: A need assessment would be conducted on 400 children studying in primary school from low-income families. Children were required to self-report their health status using EQ-5D-Y-3L and their parents reported the developmental disabilities of their children using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the self-reported health status. The discriminant validity of the EQ-5D-Y-3L was then examined by comparing the responses on five dimensions of HRQoL profiles from the children and parent-reported developmental disabilities with VABS in four dimensions of communication, daily living skills, socialization and maladaptive behaviours. Fisher’s test was used to examine the association between children-reported and parent-reported.

RESULTS: Up to current, 62 pairs of children aged 8 to 13 and parents were included in this analysis. The sex ratio was 1. Among the responded children, around 11%, 0%, 3%, 11% and 23% reported problems with mobility, looking after themselves, usual activities, pain/discomfort, worried/sad/unhappy respectively. 71% of them reported full health status. Around 25% had at least one type of parent-reported developmental disabilities (33% in communication, 23% in daily living skills, 23% in socialization and 26% in maladaptive behaviours). Fisher’s exact tests reported no significant difference between the children’s health responses and their parent-reported developmental disabilities (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings identified that the self-reported happiness among the children in low-income families was poor which implies health intervention focus on mental health is necessary. It demonstrated no discriminant validity of the EQ-5D-Y-3L between children-reported HRQoL and parent-reported developmental disabilities. It indicates the importance of the children's self-reported HRQoL for health intervention.