Pediatric Functional Constipation Questionnaire - Parent Report

Abstract

Functional constipation is a common gastrointestinal ailment in childhood that in the near future might lead to negative outcomes in their physiological state, emotional wellbeing, and quality of life. The important aspect of successful diagnosis, planning of treatment and monitoring is a proper symptom assessment because younger children are often not able to provide good self-reporting related to their symptoms. This study aimed to develop and validate the Pediatric Functional Constipation Questionnaire-Parent Report which is a questionnaire that gathers parent-reported data. It adopts a quantitative study methodology through the cross-sectional design, where it involves parents or legal guardians of the children with functional constipation. The questionnaire was created based on literature review, expert review, pilot testing and psychometric testing. The reliability was checked using the Cronbach alpha, the test-retest reliability and the validity was checked using content validation, face validation and the SFA. It was found to have high internal consistency, good temporal stability and good content and construct validity. Parents have expressed that the questionnaire was easy to understand, comprehensive and practical in the routine clinical practice. The instrument was effective in measuring a variety of areas, like bowel habits, constipation symptoms, functional impact, and parents' general perception of the state of the child. It is concluded that in the Pediatric Functional Constipation Questionnaire-Parent Report is a dependable and valid tool that could be used to support standardized clinical assessment, enhance the communication between health professionals and the family, improve outcomes monitoring of treatment and offer a powerful instrument in the study of pediatric gastroenterology.