Limb-Q Kids

CONCEPT-DRIVEN APPROACH

LIMB-Q Kids is a rigorously developed patient-reported outcome measure that can be used to measure outcomes in children and adolescents with lower limb differences. Lower Limb Differences can arise from a spectrum of disorders, which can be either congenital (e.g. fibular hemimelia, tibial hemimelia, congenital femoral deficiency, Genu valgum, Genu varus) or acquired from conditions such as trauma, infections, tumors, and Perthes disease, Blount’s disease, and rickets. LIMB-Q Kids was developed from concept elicitation interviews with 79 patients with lower limb differences and their parents from Canada, Ethiopia, India and the USA. To establish content validity, we conducted 17 cognitive debriefing interviews with patients with lower limb differences and obtained input from 23 experts including orthopaedic surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, and prosthetists from Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, India, UK and the USA. LIMB-Q Kids was then field-tested internationally in 800 patients with lower limb differences from 16 sites in 7 countries.

MODULAR DESIGN

The conceptual framework for LIMB-Q Kids covers 4 domains: appearance, health-related quality of life, and symptoms. Each domain is composed of multiple independently functioning scales. The variety of scales provides flexibility to choose the subset of scales best suited to measure the outcomes of interest in any given study or clinical situation. An advantage of the modular structure, with individually scored scales, means it is possible to add new scales to fill any gaps as these are identified.