OBJECTIVES: To assess and compare the psychometric properties of the 3L and 5L versions of EQ-5D-Y and the adult EQ-5D in healthy adolescents with a range of health conditions.

METHODS: Adolescents with and without health conditions were recruited from the neurologic and infectious clinics at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, as well as from different governmental schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The feasibility, reliability, and known group validity of both 3L/5L of EQ-5D-Y and adult EQ-5D versions was tested and compared in a cross-sectional study among adolescent with HIV AIDS and epilepsy health conditions and in a control group of ‘healthy’ adolescents (n≈ 425). The questionnaires were administered by randomness and separated by a cognitive task. Test-retest reliability and responsiveness was also examined after one month of the first visit (n= 56, n= 40 respectively).

RESULTS: A sample of 425 (186 school sample (healthy), 106 Epilepsy and 133 HIV AIDS) were included in the sample for analysis. The number of missing data in all dimensions of the EQ-5D (both adult and youth versions) were negligible, so the feasibility was acceptable. There was a range of 7- 18% and 10-32% inconsistent responses moving from EQ-5D-3L to EQ-5D-Y-3L and from EQ-5D-5L to EQ-5D-Y-5L. The Y-5L showed moderate to high association for test-retest reliability across dimensions of level sum score (LSS) ICC score of 0.959 (95% CI, 0.931,0.975) and VAS ICC score of 0.793 (95% CI, 0.671, 0.873) in individual with unchanged chronic health conditions and for the general population. The findings revealed that the Amharic EQ-5D-5L(-Y-5L) and EQ-5D-3L(-Y-3L) has significant known group validity as shown by the difference in scores among disease groups (HIV vs Epilepsy, HIV vs Healthy, and Epilepsy vs Healthy).

CONCLUSIONS: The results shows that the Amharic EQ-5D-5L(-Y-5L) and EQ-5D-3L(-Y-3L) are valid, reliable and feasible instruments for children/adolescents across disease conditions and healthy children/adolescent populations in Ethiopia.