The World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument for people with intellectual and physical disabilities (WHOQOL-Dis): evidence of validity of the Brazilian version

Abstract

BackgroundThe number of people with disabilities in Brazil and worldwide has grown substantially in recent decades. Cross-cultural quality of life instruments can be helpful in the development of interventions designed to meet the needs of this population and contribute to rational allocation of resources. This study sought to provide evidence of validity and reliability the Brazilian Portuguese version of WHOQOL-Dis-D (a cross-cultural, multicentre instrument developed by the WHOQOL-Group for the assessment of quality of life in persons with physical disability – PD) and WHOQOL-Dis-ID (for persons with intellectual disability – ID).MethodsClassical psychometric methods were used to conduct independent analyses of the PD and ID samples. Criterion groups were established for analysis of construct validity. Concurrent validity was assessed in relation to SWLS and BDI-II scores; discriminant validity, in relation to WHODAS-II. Cronbach alpha was used to test the instrument scales and subscales for reliability. The ID subgroup was retested, and test-retest reliability assessed by means of intraclass correlation coefficients and paired Student’s t-test.ResultsA total of 162 (98 females) people with PD and 156 (55 females) people with ID participated in the study. Cronbach alpha was satisfactory across practically all domains and factors in the PD subsample. In IDs, most factors or domains had coefficients higher than 0.70, but four subscales exhibited less satisfactory performance. Evidence of construct and concurrent validity and reliability were obtained.ConclusionsThe analyses presented herein provide satisfactory evidence of the validity and reliability of the instrument and corroborated the factor structure revealed during cross-cultural research. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to obtain additional evidence of validity and reliability.

Pilot feasibility study examining a structured self‐management diabetes education programme, DESMOND‐ID, targeting HbA1c in adults with intellectual disabilities

“…Attendance for both the adults with intellectual disabilities and their carers throughout the duration of the 7‐week intervention was very good. The reasonable adjustments the research team made to the questionnaires (wording, using pictorial cues alongside the Likert responses) have been reported as helpful and acceptable by all participants . There were no difficulties in collating the metabolic measures and psychosocial social measures at Time 1; however, we were not able to collate some of these data for three participants in the intervention group (15%) and five participants in the control group (20%) at the 12‐week follow‐up period.…”

“…After consent to participate had been obtained from those screened, the research team contacted the participant and their carer to arrange baseline metabolic and cardiovascular data collection. In addition, participants were asked to complete three standardized questionnaires made up of instruments, validated from the mainstream diabetes population, that explored their severity and perceptions of diabetes illness and quality of life . These same assessments were administered 12 weeks after the intervention.…”

“…The Diabetes Illness Representation Questionnaire (DIRQ) was used to examine the participants’ perceptions about the seriousness and impact of diabetes. The WHO quality of life questionnaire (WHOQOL‐BREF) is a short version of a measure of general quality of life, developed by the WHO simultaneously in 17 different countries to ensure cultural comparability and generalizability. This questionnaire generates a general health score and four domain scores: physical, psychological, social and environmental quality of life.…”

Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument for People with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities (WHOQOL-DIS-TR)

“…Türkiye merkezi odak grup sonuçlarına (Eser ve ark. 2007) göre pilot sürümde diğer bazı merkezlerin (Bredemeier ve ark. 2014 ) aksine önerilen soru setinde yer alan kavramlardan başka herhangi bir ek kavram önerilmemiştir.…”

Benefits of intradialytic physiotherapy in quality of life, pain, edema and respiratory function of patients with chronic kidney disease

“…The instrument has 26 questions, being 2 questions about QOL. The other 24 are divided in four domains: Physical (pain and discomfort; energy and fatigue; sleep and resting; mobility; activities from daily life; medication or treatments dependence; work capacity); psychological (positive feelings; thinking, learning, memorizing and concentration; self-esteem; body image and appearance; negative feelings; spirituality/religion/ personal believes); social relations (personal relations; social support; sexual activity); and environment (physical security and protection; environment at home; financial resources; health and social care: availability and quality; opportunities to acquire new information and abilities; participation in and opportunities of recreation/leisure; physical environment: pollution, noise, traffic, climate; transportation) [16]. The results achieved with the validation process of the WHOQOLbref in the Portuguese version in Brazil and at the others research centers obtained a good performance with satisfactory characteristics, discriminant validity and reliability, performed in the same form of the process initiated with the WHOQOL-100 validation.…”