Psychometric properties of the World Health Organization quality of life assessment – brief in methadone patients: a validation study in northern Taiwan

Abstract

BackgroundQuality of life (QOL) is an important outcome measure in the treatment of heroin addiction. The Taiwan version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF [TW]) has been developed and studied in various groups, but not specifically in a population of injection drug users. The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF (TW) in a sample of injection drug users undergoing methadone maintenance treatment.MethodsA total of 553 participants were interviewed and completed the instrument. Item-response distributions, internal consistency, corrected item-domain correlation, criterion-related validity, and construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis were evaluated.ResultsThe frequency distribution of the 4 domains of the WHOQOL-BREF (TW) showed no floor or ceiling effects. The instrument demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were higher than 0.7 across the 4 domains) and all items had acceptable correlation with the corresponding domain scores (r = 0.32-0.73). Correlations (p < 0.01) of the 4 domains with the 2 benchmark items assessing overall QOL and general health were supportive of criterion-related validity. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded marginal goodness-of-fit between the 4-domain model and the sample data.ConclusionsThe hypothesized WHOQOL-BREF measurement model was appropriate for the injection drug users after some adjustments. Despite different patterns found in the confirmatory factor analysis, the findings overall suggest that the WHOQOL-BREF (TW) is a reliable and valid measure of QOL among injection drug users and can be utilized in future treatment outcome studies. The factor structure provided by the study also helps to understand the QOL characteristics of the injection drug users in Taiwan. However, more research is needed to examine its test-retest reliability and sensitivity to changes due to treatment.

Psychological distress and quality of life among Jordanian women diagnosed with breast cancer: The role of trait mindfulness

“…It is a cross-culturally valid assessment of QOL, as reflected by its four domains: physical, psychological, social and environmental domain (Skevington, Lotfy, & O'Connell, 2004). Analyses of internal consistency, item-total correlations, discriminate validity and construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the WHOQOL-BREF has good to excellent psychometric properties of reliability and performs well in preliminary tests of validity (Fu et al, 2013;WHOQOL Group, 1998). All items are rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 to 5.…”

Association of frail index and quality of life among community‐dwelling older adults

“…The sum of the scores for each domain yielded the overall QOL score, which ranged between 16 and 80 points, and a higher score represented a superior QOL (Yao et al 2002). Fu et al (2013) adopted the WHOQOL-BREF to examine the QOL of older adults living in communities in Central Taiwan. The internal consistencies of the physiological, psychological, social and environmental categories demonstrated a Cronbach's a > 0Á7.…”

Quality of life in patients treated with methadone: The WHOQOL-BREF, psychometric study and application results

“…Considering the test as a whole, the WHOQOL-BREF is a reliable test with sufficient internal consistency both when exploring on an item level as well as a domain level in the sample studied: all of the items show adequate discriminatory power (rit > .30) and all of the scales, a ω > .70. A similar study on more than 500 subjects undergoing treatment with methadone found poor suitability of the four dimensions to the data obtained with unacceptable adequacy indicators (Fu et al, 2013) although methods were used that are not optimal for the nature of the data when estimating the structure and internal consistency (maximum likelihood and alpha coefficient, respectively).…”

“…Some studies have explored certain psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF among populations with addictive conducts, such as the reliability or convergent validity with similar tests (Barros da Silva Lima, Fleck, Pechansky, De Boni, & Sukop, 2005), yet hardly any studies have been found on the construct validity that also reflect significant inconsistencies in the structure (Fu et al, 2013). The few papers available that explore the theoretical suitability of four domains to the data available have shown some inconsistencies in psychiatric population samples (Trompenaars, Masthoff, van Heck, Hodiamont, & de Vries, 2005) and in varied-source clinical and non-clinical samples Urzúa & Caqueo-Urízar, 2013), including samples recruited from methadone treatment programs (Chang, Wang, Tang, Cheng, & Lin, 2014).…”