PERFORMANCE OF A SELF-ADMINISTERED MAILED VERSION OF THE QUALITY OF WELL-BEING (QWB-SA) QUESTIONNAIRE AMONG OLDER ADULTS

OBJECTIVES. The Quality of Well-Being questionnaire is a measure of he alth-related quality of life (HRQoL) that has several desirable proper ties. Its widespread use has been hindered because it is difficult to administer. To overcome this limitation, a new self-administered form has recently been developed. This study examined the feasibility of us ing the Quality of Well-Being-Self-Administered (QWB-SA) questionnaire in an older population. METHODS. The Quality of Well-Being-Self-Admin istered questionnaire was sent to 430 community-dwelling individuals a ged 65 years and older who were randomly selected from primary care ph ysicians' offices. Response patterns, scaling distributions, and the a cceptability of the survey were examined for all respondents. The resu lts of the QWB-SA questionnaire were compared to the Sickness Impact P rofile (SIP) and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) for those individuals who also had completed the latter two surveys approximately 10 months earlier and whose health had not changed substantially in the meantime. RESULTS. Three hundred and one older adults (70%) responded. The mean QWB-SA questionnaire score was 0.7035. The scores were not skewed, and there were no floor or ceiling effects. The mean time to complete the QWB-SA questionnaire was 14.2 minutes, which was significantly shorter than for the SIP (19.3 minute s) but significantly longer than for the SF-36 (12.5 minutes). Subject s rated their satisfaction with the QWB-SA questionnaire somewhat lowe r than for the SIP and similar to SF-36. Correlations between the QWB- SA questionnaire and the SIP and SF-36 were moderate and were generall y stronger for measures of physical health than far other domains such as mental health. CONCLUSIONS, The self-administered QWB questionnair e was acceptable to older respondents, and it correlated with other me asures of health-related quality of life. It can be considered as a ca ndidate for some research applications among older adults.