Italian validation of the childhood atopic dermatitis impact scale: A contribution to its clinical application

To contribute to the application of the Childhood Atopic Dermatitis Impact Scale (CADIS), 135 Italian parents of children with atopic dermatitis (AD) aged birth to 6 years completed: CADIS, Infants Dermatitis Quality of Life Index (IDQOL) or Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI), and Dermatitis Family Impact 10-item questionnaire (DFI). A subsample of 66 caregivers completed the CADIS again, 48 hours later. Disease severity was measured with the Severity Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index. Exploratory factor analyses almost replicated the general factor structure of the original CADIS, established on a US sample. However, some differences emerged, probably due to cultural differences. A reduced version of the original CADIS was also obtained, based on the exploratory factor analyses, to facilitate use in clinical settings. The original and the shorter versions were tested for reliability: overall Cronbach's α and test-retest reliability for the child- and parent-related scales were acceptable. Regarding concurrent validity, estimates showed the CADIS to correlate adequately with SCORAD, IDQOL-CDLQI, and DFI. Multiple comparison tests for discriminant validity revealed significant differences between extreme groups based on AD severity for all five domains of CADIS. The original CADIS showed adequate validity and reliability in Italy as well, and the shorter version showed promising psychometric properties.