title: Validation of two quality of life questionnaires suitable for intensive care patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate two instruments measuring quality of life (QOL) suitable for patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU): QOL-IT and QOL-SP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study using patient interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two four-bed surgical-medical ICUs in a 960-bed teaching hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred seventy-two adult, co-operative patients consecutively admitted to ICU for more than 24 h were interviewed. One year after hospital discharge, 84 survivors were interviewed again. Inter-observer reproducibility was investigated in 36 patients. To validate the instruments, the QOL-IT and QOL-SP scores reported by patients were considered according to the functional limitation evaluated by the interviewer. Moreover, the theoretical prediction that patients with chronic diseases should have a worse QOL before ICU admission than patients with only acute illness was tested. QOL-IT and QOL-SP scores given 1 year after hospital discharge were compared with those recorded at the first interview.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Inter-observer reproducibility was excellent. The possible range of QOL-IT is 0-20 and that of QOL-SP 0-29. According to the functional limitation (absent, mild or severe), the median QOL-IT score increased from 3 to 6 to 13 and QOL-SP from 2 to 6 to 12 (p< 0.0001). The patients with chronic diseases gave scores significantly higher than the patients with only acute illness (median QOL-IT 8 versus 3, p< 0.013; QOL-SP 8 versus 4, p< 0.004). The median QOL-IT score changed from 3 to 4 one year after hospital discharge, a difference which is statistically (p< 0.001), but not clinically, significant. The median QOL-SP score was 3 and did not change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QOL-IT and QOL-SP are instruments able to discriminate between different health states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Advanced Therapy, University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Capuzzo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grasselli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carrer
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gritti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alvisi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires