Development of short versions for the WHOQOL-OLD module.
OBJECTIVE
To explore short-form versions of World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-OLD) with acceptable psychometric properties, which was developed for older adults by the WHOQOL research group, containing 24 items initially.


METHODS
We randomly sampled two-thirds of respondents from the data of WHOQOL-OLD field study (N = 5,566), as a developmental sample, and the remaining third as a validation sample. Three approaches (item response theory [IRT] and regression analysis [REG], classical test theory [CTT] and REG, and CTT and IRT and REG) were performed to develop three short-form scales with six items each using the developmental sample. The reliability and criterion validity of the three short-form scales were evaluated using the validation sample.


RESULTS
The version 1 of short-form scales contained items 6, 11, 12, 16, 20, and 21; version 2 contained items 2, 6, 11, 12, 17, and 22; and version 3 contained items 4, 6, 17, 19, 20, and 24. The correlation coefficient between the total scores of the three versions and WHOQOL-OLD were .918, .925, and .922, respectively. The internal consistency reliability coefficients of the three versions were .681, .678, and .649, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The three versions of short-form WHOQOL-OLD contained the best items of the original module, much shorter, and with good internal consistency and criterion validity as a whole.
School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, 74 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou 510080, China. fangjq@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Jiqian
J
Fang
Mick
M
Power
Yueqing
Y
Lin
Jinxin
J
Zhang
Yuantao
Y
Hao
Somnath
S
Chatterji
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014944:World Health Organization