title: Validity and reliability of three commonly used quality of life measures in a large European population of coronary heart disease patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the validity and reliability of the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12v2), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) in a stable coronary population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study EUROASPIRE III.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quality of life data (QoL) were available on 8745 patients hospitalized for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), or myocardial ischemia. They were interviewed and examined at least 6 months after their hospital admission. Reliability and validity of the 3 instruments were tested. Internal consistency, and discriminative, convergent, criterion and construct validity were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cronbach's alpha indicated good internal consistency for all measures (0.73 to 0.87). Discriminative validity analyses confirmed significant QoL differences between known groups: age, gender, educational level. In addition, all hypothesized correlations between QoL constructs (convergent validity) and items (criterion validity) were confirmed with significant correlations. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated good construct validity for HADS and SF-12v2. On country-specific level, results were roughly similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The EQ-5D as well as the SF-12v2 and the HADS are reliable and valid instruments for use in a stable coronary population, both on aggregate European level and on country-specific level. However, our results must be generalized with caution, because EUROASPIRE III patients might not be representative for all patients with stable coronary heart disease.
authors: Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium. Electronic address: Delphine.desmedt@ugent.be.
authors: Delphine
authors: D
authors: De Smedt
authors: Els
authors: E
authors: Clays
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Doyle
authors: Kornelia
authors: K
authors: Kotseva
authors: Christof
authors: C
authors: Prugger
authors: Andrzej
authors: A
authors: Pająk
authors: Catriona
authors: C
authors: Jennings
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Wood
authors: Dirk
authors: D
authors: De Bacquer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results