title: Developing a quality-of-life questionnaire for patients with respiratory illness.
abstract: In this short report, the construction of a disease-specific quality-of-life questionnaire for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is described. Some psychometric aspects are also discussed. We listed 221 items relating to several domains of quality-of-life, and asked 204 patients to indicate, on a seven-point Likert-scale, how much of a problem each item had been during the last year. After item selection, a quality-of-life scale was constructed, consisting of 55 items divided into 7 subscales. The reliability estimates vary from 0.68 to 0.89, and can be considered as quite satisfactory. Results concerning construct validity are promising; there is a strong relationship between the Quality-of-life subscales and several indicators of illness severity. Further research is called for to validate the questionnaire.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Psychiatry, University of Leiden, Oegstgeest, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Maillé
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kaptein
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Koning
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Zwinderman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires