Development and validation of a quality of life questionnaire for individuals with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Objective: Create and test the psychometric proprieties of the specific instrument for the quantification of the quality of life in subjects with spinal cord injuries. Methods: From the existing consensus methods was chosen the Delphi technique for the creation of the questionnaire and the SF-36 for criteria method. Results: The internal consistence was α=0,827. The intra and inter evaluators confidence shows itself high by the intra class correlation coefficient and the Brand and Altman test by the difference of average. Can be observed strong correlations between the QVLM and SF-36 in the functional capacity and physical aspects domains and moderate correlation in the health state and emotional aspects domains. There was a significant difference between the four applications of QVLM, demonstrating that the questionnaire is sensible to change. Conclusion: The QVLM was created with a suitable methodology and the evaluation of the psychometrics proprieties turn out to be on a valid, reliable, consisting and sensible to changes instrument.