title: Development and psychometric evaluation of a chronic liver disease-specific quality of life questionnaire.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There has been no reliable and valid instrument to measure health-related quality of life for Asian patients with chronic liver disease. The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate a chronic liver disease-specific quality of life (CLD-QOL) questionnaire for Korean patients with chronic liver disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content-validated items were evaluated psychometrically in 271 patients with chronic liver disease recruited from seven university hospitals in Korea. The participants were asked to complete a preliminary questionnaire comprising the content-validated items and the Short Form-36 Health Survey. The Child-Pugh classification was used to classify the severity of liver cirrhosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Factor analysis extracted a five-factor solution from 27 preliminary items, which were generated by an expert panel and a pilot study, but factor and a multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that four items were not loaded significantly on any factor, suggesting that the four items might be heterogeneous. After deletion of these four items, a multiscaling analysis strongly supported item convergence and discriminant validity. The CLD-QOL was associated significantly with the Child-Pugh classification and the type of patient status (inpatient/outpatient) and was moderately correlated with the subscales of the Short Form-36 Health Survey. The values of Cronbach's alpha for the subscales of the novel CLD-QOL questionnaire were all greater than 0.70.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The novel CLD-QOL questionnaire we developed is an easily applicable tool that exhibits excellent psychometric properties for Korean patients with chronic liver disease. It is recommended for the CLD-QOL to apply for Asian patients with chronic liver disease.
authors.affiliation: Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Hyun
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jae Youn
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: Sung Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Ki-Baik
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hahm
authors.forename: Hak Yang
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jong-Jae
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Dong Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seong Kook
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seok Reyol
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Soo Teik
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seong Mi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Moon
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*