title: Reliability and validity of the Hospice Quality of Life Scale for Korean cancer patients.
abstract: The Hospice Quality of Life Scale (HQLS) for Korean cancer patients was developed as follows: 1) item generation by semi-structured interviews and review of existing scales, 2) item reduction by the Delphi method, and 3) reliability and validity test. The final HQLS consisted of 40 questions within 13 domains and the internal consistency was 0.41-0.93. The domain "Family and Economy" was uniquely separated from the general social issues, which reflects the family-oriented Asian culture. For construct validity, the HQLS scores differed significantly according to their Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (known-group validity). Convergent and discriminant success rates were optimal in nine and four subscales, respectively. Total and subscale scores were significantly correlated with the related subscales in the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and the McMaster Quality of Life Scale, which supported the concurrent validity. HQLS was approved as an efficient tool for assessing the quality of life of Korean cancer patients who were receiving hospice and palliative care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
authors.forename: Su Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Youn Seon
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Juneyoung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sang Cheul
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Chang Hwan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yeom
authors.forename: Myung Ah
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dae Gyeun
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Do Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Dae Young
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Su-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Koh
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000451:nursing*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome