VALIDATION OF A QUALITY-OF-LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS

Objective: Development and validation of quality of life questionnaire for critical care patients. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Inten sive care unit (ICU) of a general hospital and ICUs of 83 Spanish hosp itals, Sample: Patients admitted to the TCU > 18 gears of age; close f amily members. Method: A committee of experts designed a questionnaire with characteristics judged essential far intensive care use: easy, q uick administration (5 - 10 min); capable of completion by patient or close family member, by direct or telephone interview. Fifteen items r elevant to critical care patients were grouped in three subscales: bas ic physiological activities, normal daily activities, and emotional st ale. Reproducibility of interobserver, intraobserver, patient/family m ember and telephone/direct interviews was analysed and also internal c onsistency, responsiveness, and main components. Results: Internal con sistency (578 patients): Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.85. Reproduc ibility: intraobserver reproducibility (n = 150): Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.92. Interobserver (n = 85): correlation = 0.92, Patie nt/family member (n = 81): correlation = 0.92. Telephone/direct interv iew (n = 54): correlation = 0.96. Validity: factorial analysis confirm ed that Che three subscales were fundamental questionnaire components. There was good concordance between questionnaire/subscale and Glasgow Out; come Scale (GOS) results, Responsiveness: quality of life score changes between preadmission and 6 months' postdischarge correlated wi th GOS findings (weighted kappa index = 0.56). Conclusions: Questionna ire meets objectives recommended for critical care use, and fulfills e ssential requirements of validity and reproducibility when applied to critically ill patients.