Psychometric Properties of the WHOQOL-BREF in an Iranian Adult Sample

Abstract

To evaluate discriminant validity, reliability, internal consistency, and dimensional structure of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) in a heterogeneous Iranian population. A clustered randomized sample of 2,956 healthy with 2,936 unhealthy rural and urban inhabitants aged 30 and above from two dissimilar Iranian provinces during 2006 completed the Persian version of the WHOQOL-BREF. We performed descriptive and analytical analysis including t-student, correlation matrix, Cronbach's Alpha, and factor analysis with principal components method and Varimax rotation with SPSS.15. The mean age of the participants was 42.2 +/- 12.1 years and the mean years of education was 9.3 +/- 3.8. The Iranian version of the WHOQOL-BREF domain scores demonstrated good internal consistency, criterion validity, and discriminant validity. The physical health domain contributed most in overall quality of life, while the environment domain made the least contribution. Factor analysis provided evidence for construct validity for four-factor model of the instrument. The scores of all domains discriminated between healthy persons and the patients. The WHOQOL-BREF has adequate psychometric properties and is, therefore, an adequate measure for assessing quality of life at the domain level in an adult Iranian population.

Relationship between Social Well-Being and Health Related Quality of Life Level among Senior Retirees of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

“…The reliability and validity of the questionnaire of KEYES model was also evaluated (KEYES, 1998;Nikvarz, 2011;Usefy et al, 2010). The life quality scales related to health include physical health (physical health + physical limitation + physical pain + general health) and mental health (social performance + mental problems+ mind health + happiness) (Hatami, 2010).…”

“…A similar paper which has studied the relationship between the social well-being and social support among the elderly has concluded that the people's aging is along with the decrease of their social well-being (Usefy et al, 2010). A lot of researches have been done about the life quality of the elderly in different cities of the country.…”

Validade dimensional do instrumento de qualidade de vida WHOQOL-BREF aplicado a trabalhadores de saúde

“…Também, é o primeiro que avalia a consistên-cia interna do WHOQOL-BREF por meio da confiabilidade composta, ao contrário dos estudos encontrados na literatura que utilizaram o alfa de Cronbach 5,17,20,23,31 . Da mesma forma, avaliou a validade fatorial convergente e discriminante baseada na inspeção da variância média extraída e correlação entre fatores.…”

“…abrange o sentido de resistência física/cansaço para as atividades da vida diária, mas também pode ser interpretada pela "sensação de sentirse vivo" 38 . Outros estudos encontraram achados similares para os itens "energia" 23,28,29,31 e "segurança" 20,23,30 . Os itens q5 "aproveitar a vida" e q19 "autossatisfação" apresentaram cargas tanto no seu fator psicológico como em relações sociais e físico 2, respectivamente.…”

“…Porém, pelo menos um índice de ajuste não foi adequado -comparative fit index (CFI) < 0,90 17,18,21,22,23,25,27 e root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) > 0,08 26,27 , ou o modelo final indicou seis 6,22 ao invés de quatro fatores (Tabela 2). Análise fatorial exploratória resultou em modelos com quatro e cinco fatores ou itens agrupando-se em fatores diferentes dos sugeridos pelo grupo WHOQOL 5,20,28,29,30,31 (Tabela 2).…”