title: Development and validation of a new questionnaire assessing quality of life in adults with hypopituitarism: Adult Hypopituitarism Questionnaire (AHQ).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and validate the Adult Hypopituitarism Questionnaire (AHQ) as a disease-specific, self-administered questionnaire for evaluation of quality of life (QOL) in adult patients with hypopituitarism.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed and validated this new questionnaire, using a standardized procedure which included item development, pilot-testing and psychometric validation. Of the patients who participated in psychometric validation, those whose clinical conditions were judged to be stable were asked to answer the survey questionnaire twice, in order to assess test-retest reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Content validity of the initial questionnaire was evaluated via two pilot tests. After these tests, we made minor revisions and finalized the initial version of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed with two domains, one psycho-social and the other physical. For psychometric assessment, analyses were performed on the responses of 192 adult patients with various types of hypopituitarism. The intraclass correlations of the respective domains were 0.91 and 0.95, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.96 and 0.95, indicating adequate test-retest reliability and internal consistency for each domain. For known-group validity, patients with hypopituitarism due to hypothalamic disorder showed significantly lower scores in 11 out of 13 sub-domains compared to those who had hypopituitarism due to pituitary disorder. Regarding construct validity, the domain structure was found to be almost the same as that initially hypothesized. Exploratory factor analysis (n = 228) demonstrated that each domain consisted of six and seven sub-domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The AHQ showed good reliability and validity for evaluating QOL in adult patients with hypopituitarism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Tenri Hospital, Tenri, Japan. hit@tenriyorozu.jp
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shimatsu
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okimura
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hizuka
authors.forename: Hidesuke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kaji
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanew
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oki
authors.forename: Sayuri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamashiro
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chihara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007018:Hypopituitarism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult