The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency (SRI) Questionnaire: a specific measure of health-related quality of life in patients receiving home mechanical ventilation.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to develop a specific instrument for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients receiving home mechanical ventilation (HMV).


METHODS
The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency (SRI) Questionnaire was developed and tested for its psychometric properties following a multicentric clinical trial including 226 patients receiving HMV (mean age 57.3+/-14.0 years).


RESULTS
Forty-nine items passed the selection process and were allocated to seven subscales: Respiratory Complaints, Physical Functioning, Attendant Symptoms and Sleep, Social Relationships, Anxiety, Psychologic Well-Being, and Social Functioning. Cronbach's alpha was >0.7 in all subscales and >0.8 in four subscales indicating high internal consistency reliability. Construct validity was confirmed by factor analysis, indicating one summary scale that accounts for 59.8% of the variance. Concurrent validity was confirmed by correlating subscales of the SRI and the SF-36 (0.21<r<0.79). Item-scale correlations revealed a high item discriminant validity. In addition, different diagnostic groups could be discriminated by the SRI. Here, the overall best HRQL was measured in the following order: patients with kyphoscoliosis, miscellaneous disorders, neuromuscular diseases, post-tuberculosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (P<.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The SRI is a new multidimensional instrument with high psychometric properties designed to measure specific HRQL in patients with SRI receiving HMV.
Windisch
Wolfram
W
Department of Pneumology, University Hospital Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany. windisch@med1.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
Freidel
Klaus
K
Schucher
Bernd
B
Baumann
Hansjörg
H
Wiebel
Matthias
M
Matthys
Heinrich
H
Petermann
Franz
F
D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires