title: Validation of the WHOQOL-BREF quality of life questionnaire for general use in New Zealand: confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study validated the abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire for general use in New Zealand.
  
  
  METHODS
  A random postal sample from the national electoral roll was used, and 808 questionnaires were returned. Psychometric properties of the instrument were assessed, including tests of the four-domain factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Goodness-of-fit from the confirmatory factor analysis were good, and the overall conclusion of the Rasch analysis supported the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) findings after dealing with problems of threshold ordering, local dependency, and differential item functioning (DIF).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The WHOQOL-BREF is valid for general use in New Zealand. In the future work, the WHOQOL-BREF domain scores should either be analyzed using non-parametric statistics or data should be fitted to the Rasch model to derive interval person estimates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, North Shore Campus, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand. chris.krageloh@aut.ac.nz
authors.forename: Christian U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Krägeloh
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kersten
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rex Billington
authors.forename: Patricia Hsien-Chuan
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shepherd
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Landon
authors.forename: Xuan Joanna
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009520:New Zealand; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014944:World Health Organization