title: The ED-EQoL: the development of a new quality of life measure for patients with erectile dysfunction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify the important issues which have an impact on the quality of life (QoL) of men suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED) and to generate a new ED-specific QoL questionnaire ready to undergo further psychometric testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  QoL issues relating to ED were generated through in-depth qualitative interviews of 29 patients, literature review and consultation with other healthcare professionals. The issues were formulated into a questionnaire, which was piloted using 40 patients with ED and subsequently refined using well-established principles of questionnaire development.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The qualitative interviews revealed numerous psychosocial problems associated with ED, which were operationalised into a 40-item questionnaire. Pilot testing allowed the questionnaire to be reduced to a manageable 15-item final questionnaire while maintaining face and content validity and the potential to discriminate between men with varying degrees of affected QoL. This questionnaire had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.94.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A new ED-specific QoL measure has been developed using appropriate methodology. Qualitative techniques identified a range of psychosocial morbidity in men with ED, leading to a simple but robust instrument with face and content validity. This questionnaire, Erectile Dysfunction-Effect on quality of life (ED-EQoL), has now undergone psychometric testing for validity and reliability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Taunton and Somerset Hospital, UK. rumac@doctors.org.uk
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: MacDonagh
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pontin
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ewings
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires