Quality of Postoperative Recovery in Children and Young People

In adults a number of instruments have been developed that measure quality of recovery following surgery. The best of these, and the most extensively utilised in other studies, is the QoR-40 (quality of recovery questionnaire with 40 items) developed by Myles and colleagues. QoR-40 is a global measure of recovery incorporating five dimensions; patient support, comfort, emotions, physical independence and pain. They developed this questionnaire from their database of 10,000 patients who had been contemporaneously interviewed about their postoperative experiences. A recent meta-analysis found QoR-40 to be a high-quality instrument, sensitive to clinical change and appropriate for purpose.

The only significant problem with QoR-40 is the time taken to complete it; an average of just over 6 minutes. In response to this the same group developed a shorter version, QoR-15 (quality of recovery questionnaire with 15 items) incorporating elements from all five original domains. The QoR-15 has been validated in adults and correlates well with QoR-40 and takes only 2.5 minutes to complete. However, the average age of the test population was 56 years (+/- 16 years) with a range from 18 to 85 years.

QoR-15 has not been used previously in children, so in preparation for this study the investigators trialed it in ten children to assess its basic acceptability. The investigators also carried out more extensive cognitive interviews in 5 children to assess whether children interpreted the meaning of the questions as intended. As a consequence, minor modifications have been made to the wording of some questions. For example, a question about feeling able to return to work has been changed to a question about feeling able to return to school/ college. The investigators also changed a question asking about the presence of moderate pain to a question about any pain, as children did not distinguish between moderate and mild pain and interpreted the original question as meaning low levels or any pain.

The visual representation of the scoring scheme has also been modified, as children found the original QoR-15 scales confusing. This will not affect the final scoring or the weighting given to any question in any way, it simply makes the scoring easier for children to understand. This modified questionnaire has been termed the PaedQoR-15 and it is this version that will be assessed in our patient population.

Inclusion criteria

• Child/ young person undergoing general anaesthesia for surgery or diagnostic imaging

Exclusion criteria

• English language skills of either parent/guardian or child inadequate to allow informed consent and/or comprehension of the questionnaire
• Intellectual disability precluding adequate comprehension of the questionnaire
• Clinical condition of child precluding adequate comprehension of the questionnaire e.g. preoperative ventilation, reduced level of consciousness
• Emergency admissions where there is insufficient time to allow informed consent