Applicability and validity of the Amnestic Comparative Self-Assessment in adolescents
The Amnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) is a sensitive, efficient, and economic instrument to assess overall quality of life in adult populations. The present study investi gates the applicability of the ACSA in an ado lescent sample and compares it to a measure of health-related quality of life, the Kiddo Kindl. The sample comprised 92 adolescents (50 girls, 42 boys) aged 11-17 years (mean age: 13.67, standard deviation: 1.34). Of the investi gated sample, n=69 (75%) completed the ACSA. No significant demographic differences were found between ACSA-respondents and non-respondents. The correlation of the Kiddo Kindl and the ACSA was moderate (r=0.50). The Kiddo-Kindl subscales and the ACSA corre lated between r=0.07 and 0.41. The majority of adolescents are able to complete the ASCA, and its acceptance and validity are independent of age. Thus, future investigations could adopt the ACSA in adolescents to assess overall qual ity of life.
1. Najman JM, Levine S. Evaluating the impact of medical care and technologies on the quality of life: A review and a critique. Soc Sci Med 1981;15:107-15.
2. Kowalski C, Pennell S, Vinokur A. Felicitometry: measuring the quality in quality of life. Bioethics 2008;22:307-13.
3. Bernheim JL. How to get serious answers to the serious question: how have you been?: subjective quality of life (QOL) as an individual experiential emergent construct. Bioethics 1999;13:272-87.
4. Bernheim J, Buyse M. The amnestic comparative self-assessment for measuring the subjective quality of life in cancer patients. J Psychosoc Oncol 1993;1:25-38.
5. van Knippenberg FC, de Haes JC. Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients: psychometric properties of instruments. J Clin Epidemiol 1988;41:1043-53.
6. Bruno MA, Bernheim JL, Ledoux D, et al. A survey on self-assessed well-being in a cohort of chronic locked-in syndrome patients: happy majority, miserable minority. BMJ Open 2011;1:e000039.
7. Walter M, Bronner E, Pascher A, et al. Psychosocial outcome of living donors after living donor liver transplantation: a pilot study. Clin Transplant 2002;16:339-44.
8. Moller V, Theuns P, Erstad I, Bernheim J. The best and worst times of life: Narratives and assessments of subjective well-being by Anamnestic Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Soc Indic Res 2008;89:1-22.
9. Bernheim J, Theuns P, Mazaheri M, et al. The potential of Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) to reduce bias in the measurement of subjective well-being. J Happiness Stud 2006;7:227-50.
10. Van Acker F, Theuns P. On possibilities and limitations of using self-anchoring scales in web surveys. Qual Quant 2010;44:1129-37.
11. Heylighen F, Bernheim J. Measuring global progress through subjective well-being. Proceedings of the III Conference of the ISQOLS; 2001: University of Girona Press.
12. Christie D, Viner R. Adolescent development. BMJ 2005;330:301-4.
13. Schneider W. The development of metacognitive knowledge in children and adolescents: Major trends and implications for education. Mind Brain Educ 2008;2:114-21.
14. Alsaker FD, Olweus D. Stability of global self-evaluations in early adolescence: A cohort longitudinal study. J Res Adolesc 1992;2:123-45.
15. Harding L. Children’s quality of life assessments: a review of generic and health related quality of life measures completed by children and adolescents. Clin Psychol Psychot 2001;8:79-96.
16. Bullinger M. Quality of life - definition, conceptualization and implications: a methodologist’s view. Theor Surg 1991;6:143-9.
17. Solans M, Pane S, Estrada MD, et al. Health-related quality of life measurement in children and adolescents: a systematic review of generic and disease-specific instruments. Value in Health 2008;11:742-64.
18. Ravens-Sieberer U, Bullinger M. Assessing health-related quality of life in chronically ill children with the German KINDL: first psychometric and content analytical results. Qual Life Res 1998;7: 399-407.
19. Ravens-Sieberer U, Bullinger M. News from the KINDL-Questionnaire - A new version for adolescents. Qual Life Res 1998;7:653.
20. Roeser K, Eichholz R, Schwerdtle B, et al. Relationship of sleep quality and health-related quality of life in adolescents according to self- and proxy ratings: a questionnaire survey. Front Psychiatry 2012;3:76.