CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF A SHORT-FORM BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE

Objective To construct and validate a short-form benign prostatic hype rtrophy (BPH) health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) questionnaire whic h is more practical in use and as informative as the 20-item visual an alogue scale questionnaire (QOL20) previously validated in French. Pat ients and methods From the factorial structure of the QOL20, a nine-it em questionnaire (QOL9) was constructed using stepwise linear regressi on and factorial analysis. The feasibility and reliability of the QOL9 were analysed in a cross-sectional case-control study and a longitudi nal cohort study, including symptomatic patients with BPH treated for 6 months with an alpha(1)-blocker (alfuzosin). Results The reduction o f the QOL20 to QOL9 showed a minimal loss of information (90 - 95% of the variance of QOL20 was explained by QOL9) and lead to a three-dimen sional structure: well being, patients' perceived sexual-life status, and BPH interference with activities. The QOL9 was practical in use (c ompletion rate 87 - 100%; duration of completion at inclusion 11.6, so 2.0 min), consistent (Cronbach's alpha > 0.7), reliable (intraclass c orrelation coefficient > 0.80) and responsive (effect-size index 0.9, so 0.01 in the longitudinal study). Conclusions The QOL9 is a good BPH HRQL questionnaire, including an assessment of patients' perceived se xual-life status; it easy to administer, accurate, reproducible and re sponsive to change with treatment. We suggest that the QOL9 be substit uted for the QOL20 and administered in addition to the International P rostate Symptom Score to obtain a better assessment of the patients' p erception of their disease.