Evaluation of a Swedish version of the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory.
OBJECTIVE
To psychometrically evaluate a Swedish version of the Quick Environment Exposure Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI), originally developed in the United States, which is a sensitive and fast questionnaire instrument with five scales used to investigate chemical intolerance.


METHODS
Ninety non-intolerant, 67 mildly intolerant, and 126 moderately/severely intolerant individuals to environmental chemicals responded at test and retest (n = 69, 64, 120, respectively) occasions to the Swedish version of the QEESI.


RESULTS
Good internal consistency (alpha = 0.74-0.95) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.78-0.93) was found in all scales, except for the internal consistency in the Masking Index (Kuder-Richardson coefficient = 0.10). All scales, but the Masking Index, further showed good convergent validity (somewhat lower in the Other Intolerences scale) and predominantly unidimensionality.


CONCLUSIONS
The Swedish version of the QEESI is reliable and valid for investigation of chemical intolerance, but the Masking Index scale does not represent a unified concept of exposure to masking agents.
Nordin
Steven
S
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden. steven.nordin@psy.umu.se
Andersson
Linus
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult