Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index

The Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) and the Cartoon CDLQI are designed to measure the impact of any skin disease on the lives of children.

The questionnaires are self-explanatory and can be simply handed to the patient who is asked to fill them in with the help of the child’s parent or guardian, as necessary.

About the questionnaires

The CDLQI questionnaire was published in 1995. The 10 questions are based on the experiences of children with skin disease.

The Cartoon CDLQI is used in the same way and has nearly the exact same text as the text-only CDLQI. Each question is illustrated by a cartoon based on the theme of the question, making it more fun for younger children.

The only difference between the two formats is that the cartoon version does not have ‘prevented school’ as a response item in question 7. This was removed due to design purposes, as the cartoon CDLQI was developed to be more user friendly for younger children.

However, both versions are fully validated, and there is no difference in how respondents answer each format. Scores may be compared in any analysis.

Who can use them

These questionnaires can be used in a range of settings by clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, with-profit organisations, students or researchers.

Depending on who you are what you're using the questionnaire for, you may need to apply for a licence and pay a fee. Please note that the CLDQI and the Cartoon CDLQI have separate licences.

Learn more about who can use this questionnaire and how to administer it.

Age range

Both versions of the CDLQI have been validated from the age of four years to 16 years (i.e. up to 15 years and 11 months).

However, younger children may appreciate using the cartoon version more than older children, and some teenagers may find the cartoon version too childish; it is probably most appropriate from the ages of four years up to approximately 11-12 years.

Use outside validated age range

If you use the CDLQI outside of its validated age range, the data should be analysed and interpreted with the caveat that it is not formally validated.

For example, if in a study there is a switch from the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index to the Dermatology Life Quality Index as soon as patients are aged 17, this presents challenges, as DLQI/CDLQI data cannot be combined, because the questions and score meaning bands are different.

Time for completion

The questionnaires are usually completed in one to two minutes.

Recall period

The questions relate to the impact of the skin disease on the child over the last week, i.e. over the last seven days.

Download the questionnaires

Different language versions

The zip files contain several different versions of the language (depending on what country), along with the translation certificates.

Find out more about our translation and linguistic validation process, and what to do if you'd like to create a new translation.

If you would like to add the cartoon images to a text-only version, please email dermqol@cardiff.ac.uk and we'll send you the high-quality JPEG/PNG files.

How to score it

The scoring of each question is:

• Very much = 3
• Quite a lot = 2
• Only a little = 1
• Not at all = 0
• Question unanswered = 0
• Question 7: 'Prevented school' (text-only questionnaire) = 3

If one question is left unanswered, this is scored 0 and the scores are summed and expressed as usual out of a maximum of 30.

If two or more questions are left unanswered, the questionnaire is not scored.

If two or more response options are ticked, the response option with the highest score should be recorded.

If there is a response between two tick boxes, the lower of the two score options should be recorded.

Meaning of scores

• 0-1 = no effect on child’s life
• 2-6 = small effect
• 7-12 = moderate effect
• 13-18 = very large effect
• 19-30 = extremely large effect

Reference: Waters A, Sandhu D, Beattie P, Ezughah F, Lewis-Jones S. Severity stratification of Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) scores. Br J Dermatol 2010; 163 (Suppl 1): 121.

Detailed analysis

The CDLQI can be analysed under six headings:

Copyright and registration

Both the CDLQI and Cartoon CDLQI are copyright worldwide, so you must not change the format, wording or design of the questionnaire.

The copyright statement for the text-only CDLQI questionnaire is:

© Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index. M S Lewis-Jones, A Y Finlay, May 1993.

The copyright statement for the Cartoon CDLQI questionnaire is:

© M. S. Lewis-Jones, A. Y. Finlay. June 1993
Illustrations ©Media Resources Centre, UWCM. Dec 1996

The copyright statement must always be reproduced at the end of every copy of the questionnaire in whatever language. By agreement, the University now owns and administers all copyright matters relating to the CDLQI and Cartoon CDLQI.

The USA Library of Congress Registration

Number: TXU 620272
Registration date: 7 February 1994
Authors: Dr M S Lewis-Jones and Professor A Y Finlay

Publications

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If you have any questions, or you have feedback on our web pages, please get in touch.

General queries

Licencing, financial and contractual enquiries