Questionnaire Analysis

The ECCD-18 (Education of Children with Chronic Diseases) questionnaire was developed by Suhrcke and de Paz Nieves in 2011. It consists of 18 open-ended and closed-ended questions, divided into three sections:
Section 1 collects demographic information about the participant.
Section 2 includes a series of questions for parents, regarding the current educational support and management their child receives at school.
Section 3 asks parents to report the most significant problems they face at school due to their child’s chronic illness.

Purpose of the Questionnaire

The purpose of the questionnaire is twofold:
At a first level, to record the educational experience and treatment (cognitive, social, and emotional) of children with chronic diseases, as perceived by their parents, within the mainstream primary school setting.
At a second level, to identify key issues that may arise from the inclusion of a child with a chronic illness in the general classroom environment.

Scoring and Statistical Analysis

The questionnaire uses a 5-point Likert scale to evaluate the abilities of a child with a chronic condition in the areas of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and social skills, compared to their peers.
The response options range from:
“Much lower than average”
“Lower than average”
“Average”
“Above average”
“Much above average”
These categories were assigned arbitrary numerical values: -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2 respectively. The item scores were summed to generate a combined OSP (Overall School Performance) score, which ranges from -10 to +10, where 0 indicates average performance.

Validity and Reliability

The questionnaire demonstrates sufficient validity and reliability.

References

E. Albanis, M. Gouvi, Ch. Marneras, G. Theodorakopoulou, G. Lalagiannis, E. Kotrotsiou. Temporary and Permanent Anxiety in Parents of Children with Type I Diabetes, Hellenic Journal of Nursing Science, Vol. 03, Issue 02, pp. 35–39.
I. Hoffmann, C. Diefenbach, C. Graf, J. König, M. F. Schmidt, K. Schnick-Vollmer, M. Blettner, M. S. Urschitz, for the ikidS Study Group. Chronic health conditions and school performance in first graders: A prospective cohort study, PLoS ONE, 13(3): e0194846, 2018.