Development and validation of a new Spanish instrument to measure health-related quality of life in patients with allergic rhinitis: the ESPRINT questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
To develop and validate an instrument to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL) specific to patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and primarily for use in Spanish and Spanish-speaking populations.


METHODS
An initial item pool was generated from literature review, focus groups with AR patients, and consultations with clinical experts. Item reduction was performed using clinimetric and psychometric approaches after administration of the item pool to 400 AR patients. The resulting instrument's internal consistency, test-retest (2-4 weeks) reliability, known groups and convergent validity, and sensitivity to change were tested in a longitudinal, observational, multicenter study in 210 AR patients who also completed the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ).


RESULTS
The new questionnaire took a mean (SD) of 7.1 (5.4) minutes to answer. Floor and ceiling effects were less than 15% on all dimensions. Cronbach's alpha values and intraclass correlation coefficient values for six of the sevendimensions and the overall score exceeded 0.70. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.01) were observed on all ESPRINT-28 dimensions and the overall score between patients with mild (mean overall score 1.97, SD 0.99), moderate (mean overall score 2.78, SD 0.88), and severe AR (mean overall score 3.89, SD 0.87). Patients with persistent AR had worse scores (P < 0.05) on all dimensions than patients with intermittent AR. Correlations between the ESPRINT-28 and the RQLQ were generally as expected. Effect sizes for score changes between the two study visits ranged from 0.96 to 1.76 for individual dimensions and the overall score.


CONCLUSIONS
This new, Spanish-developed instrument to measure HRQOL in AR patients has shown good reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. It has also proved easy to use and administer.
Unidad de Alergia, Servicio de Neumologia y Alergia Respiratoria, Hospital Clínic i Provincial, C. Villarroel, 170, 08036 Barcelona, Spain. valero@clinic.ub.es
Valero
Antonio
A
Alonso
Jordi
J
Antepara
Ignacio
I
Baró
Eva
E
Colas
Carlos
C
del Cuvillo
Alfonso
A
Ferrer
Montse
M
Herdman
Michael
M
Martí-Guadaño
Enrique
E
Monclús
Laura
L
Mullol
Joaquim
J
Navarro-Pulido
Ana María
AM
Navas
Carlos
C
Sastre
Joaquim
J
Baltasar
M
M
Bartra
J
J
Serrano
C
C
Cardona
V
V
Castillo
J A
JA
Cerda
M T
MT
Cistero
A
A
Conejero
A
A
Davila
I
I
Escudero
C
C
Hernandez
E
E
Vereda
A
A
Fernandez
B
B
Mencia
J
J
Fernández
J
J
Florido
J
J
Quiralte
J
J
Guardia
P
P
Malek
T
T
Montoro
J
J
Orta
J C
JC
Oehling
A
A
Pascual
M J
MJ
de la Parte
B
B
Raga
E
E
Rubira
N
N
Ranea
S
S
Rivas
P
P
Serra
J
J
Tabar
A
A
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires