OBJECTIVES: Measurement of Health-Related Quality of Life in infants and toddlers is gaining importance. However, there is limited evidence for generic instruments, particularly those amenable to preference-weighted scoring. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of EQ-TIPS and PedsQL in children aged 0-4-years, with a health condition.

METHODS: Infants/toddlers were recruited from a tertiary paediatric hospital in South Africa. Distribution of EQ-TIPS and PedsQL responses was compared, and the association of item and dimension/summary scores were computed with Pearson and Intra-Class Correlation co-efficient respectively.

RESULTS: Preliminary data from 185 infants/toddlers were included. Most children were males (n=108, 58%) aged 2-4-years (n=120, 65%). Caregivers were mostly mothers (n=153, 83%), with more than one child (n=125, 68%). EQ-TIPS and PedsQL similarly had the lowest report of problems for Play and Social interaction/functioning. The highest report of problems for EQ-TIPS was Eating, Pain and Communication and PedsQL Crying/fussing when left alone, Feeling angry and Missing school to go to the doctor respectively. The EQ-TIPS summary score showed high correlations (ICC>0.5) with all PedsQL dimensions except Emotional Functioning. EQ-TIPS Pain and Eating were only associated with PedsQL Physical Symptoms. PedsQL Emotional and Cognitive/School Functioning scores were not strongly associated EQ-TIPS items, although strong associations were noted for the latter at item level.

CONCLUSIONS: The measures had a similar distribution of responses despite EQ-TIPS reporting for Today on a severity scale and PedsQL for the last month on a frequency scale. EQ-TIPS Eating and Pain had a high report of problems and a strong association with PedsQL Physical Symptoms only. The 13–24-month PedsQL scale may thus be more appropriate for older children, 2-4-years. EQ-TIPS did not include any items of Emotional Functioning with frequent problems reported on the PedsQL. This may warrant consideration in further development of EQ-TIPS.