title: Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure questionnaire.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  One of the major challenges for health care professionals in heart failure (HF) management is to maintain and/or improve HF patient health-related quality of life. The Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) is one of the most comprehensive and widely used tools for measuring health-related quality of life among patients with HF. The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the tool.
  
  
  METHODS
  The MLHFQ was administered among 128 Greek-Cypriot HF patients to assess the internal consistency, content validity, and contrast validity of its Greek version. Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken to establish its construct validity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The factor analysis in this study provided support for a 3-factor solution explaining 64.15% of the variance (physical, emotional, and social subscales). The internal consistency for the Greek version of the MLHFQ total scale (0.95) and subscales (0.80-0.94) were found to be high. The contrast validity of the Greek version of the MLHFQ was explored through cumulative MLHFQ scores and comparisons that were able to distinguish among all different levels of HF severity, as defined by the New York Heart Association functional class grouping.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides support for the reliability and validity of the Greek version of the MLHFQ.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Department, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Nicosia, Cyprus. ekaterini.lambrinou@cut.ac.cy
authors.forename: Ekaterini
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lambrinou
authors.forename: Fotini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kalogirou
authors.forename: Demetris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lamnisos
authors.forename: Nicos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: Panayota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sourtzi
authors.forename: Chrysoula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemonidou
authors.forename: Vassilis I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Barberis
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avraamides
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ioannides
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papathanassoglou
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires