title: The Trojan Lifetime Champions Health Survey: development, validity, and reliability.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Self-report questionnaires are an important method of evaluating lifespan health, exercise, and health-related quality of life (HRQL) outcomes among elite, competitive athletes. Few instruments, however, have undergone formal characterization of their psychometric properties within this population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the validity and reliability of a novel health and exercise questionnaire, the Trojan Lifetime Champions (TLC) Health Survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive laboratory study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A large National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I university.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 63 university alumni (age range, 24 to 84 years), including former varsity collegiate athletes and a control group of nonathletes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed the TLC Health Survey twice at a mean interval of 23 days with randomization to the paper or electronic version of the instrument.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content validity, feasibility of administration, test-retest reliability, parallel-form reliability between paper and electronic forms, and estimates of systematic and typical error versus differences of clinical interest were assessed across a broad range of health, exercise, and HRQL measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlation coefficients, including intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for continuous variables and κ agreement statistics for ordinal variables, for test-retest reliability averaged 0.86, 0.90, 0.80, and 0.74 for HRQL, lifetime health, recent health, and exercise variables, respectively. Correlation coefficients, again ICCs and κ, for parallel-form reliability (ie, equivalence) between paper and electronic versions averaged 0.90, 0.85, 0.85, and 0.81 for HRQL, lifetime health, recent health, and exercise variables, respectively. Typical measurement error was less than the a priori thresholds of clinical interest, and we found minimal evidence of systematic test-retest error. We found strong evidence of content validity, convergent construct validity with the Short-Form 12 Version 2 HRQL instrument, and feasibility of administration in an elite, competitive athletic population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that the TLC Health Survey is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing lifetime and recent health, exercise, and HRQL, among elite competitive athletes. Generalizability of the instrument may be enhanced by additional, larger-scale studies in diverse populations.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.
authors.forename: Shawn C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Sorenson
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Robin M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Scholefield
authors.forename: E Todd
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: Stanley P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Azen
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Salem
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D056352:Athletes; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: athletes; exercise; quality of life; questionnaires; reproducibility of results