OBJECTIVES: HUI is a family of multi-attribute, health-status classification and preference scoring systems for general population health surveys and clinical research studies including cost-utility economic evaluations of alternative treatments. It has been translated and culturally adapted into many languages. This is the first report of HUI in Turkish. METHODS: The original English-language health-status classification system was translated into Turkish by 3 physicians from the pediatric oncology clinic in Istanbul. The consensus forward translation was independently back translated and then reviewed by HUInc staff. It provides the keywords for subsequent HUI questionnaire translation. The same forward / backward translation strategy with all-party consensus produced the interviewer-administered questionnaire for proxy assessments (HUI23P1Tr.40Q). The questionnaire was evaluated for acceptability and construct validity by interviewing parents of patients who developed neutropenia during their first chemotherapy cycle. Parents were interviewed twice at the Istanbul clinic, during and again after the neutropenic episode. Upon completion of the first interview, parents were asked informally about the questionnaire readability and suitability. Utility scores are from the original published functions based on general population preference measurements and differences in mean utility scores were tested using ANOVA. RESULTS: Parents of 50 newly diagnosed patients (26 males, mean age 91.3 months) were interviewed. The questionnaire was reported by all parents to be understandable and acceptable. Overall utility scores of health-related quality of life (HRQL) during neutropenic episodes (HUI2 mean=0.65, SD=0.251; HUI3 mean=0.60, SD=0.328) were significantly and importantly lower (HUI2 p=.008, HUI3 p=.034) than after recovery (HUI2 mean=0.79, SD=0.244; HUI3 mean=0.75, SD=0.315) as were the single-attribute scores for HUI2 and HUI3 emotion (p=.048, p=.015). CONCLUSION: As expected, the patients had lower HRQL and increased emotional morbidity when neutropenic. Parental reports provide evidence that the Turkish translation is acceptable, understandable and has construct validity for assessing health-status in childhood cancer patients.