title: Neuro-QOL: brief measures of health-related quality of life for clinical research in neurology.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To address the need for brief, reliable, valid, and standardized quality of life (QOL) assessment applicable across neurologic conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Drawing from larger calibrated item banks, we developed short measures (8-9 items each) of 13 different QOL domains across physical, mental, and social health and evaluated their validity and reliability. Three samples were utilized during short form development: general population (Internet-based, n = 2,113); clinical panel (Internet-based, n = 553); and clinical outpatient (clinic-based, n = 581). All short forms are expressed as T scores with a mean of 50 and SD of 10.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Internal consistency (Cronbach α) of the 13 short forms ranged from 0.85 to 0.97. Correlations between short form and full-length item bank scores ranged from 0.88 to 0.99 (0.82-0.96 after removing common items from banks). Online respondents were asked whether they had any of 19 different chronic health conditions, and whether or not those reported conditions interfered with ability to function normally. All short forms, across physical, mental, and social health, were able to separate people who reported no health condition from those who reported 1-2 or 3 or more. In addition, scores on all 13 domains were worse for people who acknowledged being limited by the health conditions they reported, compared to those who reported conditions but were not limited by them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These 13 brief measures of self-reported QOL are reliable and show preliminary evidence of concurrent validity inasmuch as they differentiate people based upon number of reported health conditions and whether those reported conditions impede normal function.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA. d-cella@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cella
authors.forename: J-S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Nowinski
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Victorson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peterman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bethoux
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinemann
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cavazos
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Reder
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sufit
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Simuni
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siderowf
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wojna
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bode
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McKinney
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Podrabsky
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wortman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gershon
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rothrock
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D009462:Neurology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*