Application of the disease-specific Quality of Life Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA) questionnaire in a general population: results from a French panel study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the psychometric properties of the disease-specific Quality of Life Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA) questionnaire in a general population, and collect French normative data.


METHODS
A postal survey was conducted on 2900 adult panelists representative of the French population. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire including the QoL-AGHDA and an evaluation of their overall health status (OHS). The QoL-AGHDA score ranges from 0 to 25, a lower score indicating better QoL. Psychometric properties of the QoL-AGHDA were assessed. The mean QoL-AGHDA scores were described by sex and age groups.


RESULTS
The return rate was 75%. The quality of completion and internal consistency reliability were good: 95% of the respondents completed all 25 QoL-AGHDA items and Cronbach's alpha was 0.86. The QoL-AGHDA score was able to discriminate between the respondents according to their OHS (from 1.5 for excellent to 12.3 for poor OHS, P < 0.001). The mean QoL-AGHDA score was 4.6 for the overall population, 5.1 for females and 4.2 for males, and ranged from 4.8 for the youngest to 6.1 for the oldest respondents.


CONCLUSIONS
The QoL-AGHDA questionnaire showed good psychometric properties when administered in the French population. French reference values were collected, completing the QoL-AGHDA normative database already available in several European countries.
Gilet
Hélène
H
Mapi Values, Lyon, France. helene.gilet@mapivalues.com
Chachuat
Anne
A
Viala-Danten
Muriel
M
Auzière
Sébastien
S
Koltowska-Häggström
Maria
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004393:Dwarfism, Pituitary; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires