Journal Article

Satisfactory results of a psychometric analysis and calculation of minimal clinically important differences of the World Health Organization quality of life-BREF questionnaire in an observational cohort study with lung cancer and mesothelioma patients

Lodder, Paul, de Vries, Jolanda, de Mol, Mark, Visser, Sabine, den Oudsten, Brenda L., Aerts, Joachim G. J. V.

2018

Overview

Background To determine the psychometric properties and minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) in advanced stage lung cancer patients. Methods Patients ( n  = 153) completed the WHOQOL-BREF and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed and reliability and construct validity determined. MCIDs were estimated with two distribution-based methods (0.5 standard deviation (SD) and 1 standard error of measurement (1 SEM)). Results CFA confirmed WHOQOL-BREF domain structure. All domains demonstrated good internal consistency (α > 0.70), except Social Relationships (α = 0.57). Nineteen of the 24 WHOQOL-BREF items had correlations of ≥ 0.40 with their intended domain. Four items had higher correlations with a domain other than their intended domain. Moderate to strong correlations were observed for corresponding domains of the two questionnaires, except for the social domains ( r  = 0.07). For 0.5 SD, MCIDs ranged from 0.88 to 1.55, and for 1 SEM MCIDs ranged from 1.76 to 2.72. Conclusions The WHOQOL-BREF has satisfactory psychometric properties in patients with advanced stage lung cancer, whereas the observed MCIDs provide a method for interpretation of scores.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adult / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Cancer patients / Cancer Research / Cancer therapies / Chemotherapy / Cohort analysis / Epidemiology / Evaluation / Factor analysis / Female / Health aspects / Health Promotion and Disease Prevention / Health surveys / Hospitals / Humans / Lung cancer / Lung Neoplasms - epidemiology / Lung Neoplasms - pathology / Lung Neoplasms - psychology / Male / Medical prognosis / Medicine/Public Health / Melanoma / Mesothelioma / Mesothelioma - epidemiology / Mesothelioma - pathology / Mesothelioma - psychology / Mesothelioma, Malignant / Middle Aged / Minimal Clinically Important Difference / Netherlands - epidemiology / Observational studies / Oncology / Patients / prevention and public health / Psychological aspects / Psychometrics / Quality of Life / Quantitative psychology / Reliability / Research Article / Surgical Oncology / Surveys / Surveys and Questionnaires / Validity / World Health Organization quality of life-BREF