title: Acceptability and psychometric properties of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire among patients undergoing heart valve surgery: validation and comparison with SF-36.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health-related quality of life (HQOL) enhancement is a major objective of valvular surgery (VS), but assessments have been limited primarily to generic measures that may not be optimally responsive to intervention. Disease-specific instruments have been used in heart failure (HF), commonly associated with valve disease, but have been neither validated nor routinely applied among patients undergoing VS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We administered the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHFQ) and SF-36 questionnaires preoperatively (T(0)) to 50 patients undergoing VS and at 1 (T(1)) and 6 months (T(2)) after VS. Performance of MLHFQ was evaluated and compared with SF-36. MLHFQ completion rates were >98% (NS vs. SF-36); Cronbach's alpha was > or = 0.9 (total score, dimensions), supporting internal reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis verified good model fit for physical/emotional domain items (relative chi-squares < 3.0, critical ratios > 2.0, both instruments), supporting structural validity. Spearman coefficients correlating MLHFQ with parallel SF-36 domains were moderate to high (0.6-0.9; P < or = .001: T(0)-T(2)), supporting convergent validity. Baseline HQOL was poorest in patients with HF (P < or = .05 [both instruments]), supporting criterion validity. Responsiveness (proportional HQOL change scores: T(0) vs. T(2)) to VS was greater with MLHFQ vs. SF-36 (P < or = .002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among patients undergoing VS, the MLHFQ is highly acceptable and maintains good psychometric properties, comparing favorably with SF-36. These findings suggest its utility for measuring disease-specific HQOL changes after VS.
authors.affiliation: The Howard Gilman Institute for Valvular Heart Diseases, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 11203, USA. phyllis.supino@downstate.edu
authors.forename: Phyllis G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Supino
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Borer
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Franciosa
authors.forename: Jacek J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Preibisz
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hochreiter
authors.forename: O W
authors.initials: OW
authors.lastname: Isom
authors.forename: Karl H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Krieger
authors.forename: Leonard N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: Dany
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bouraad
authors.forename: Lindsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Forur