Validity and reliability of the Arabic version of the "Personal Wellbeing Index-Adults" on adults with hearing impairment

Background: The Personal Wellbeing Index-Adults (PWI-A) is the most widely used instrumentfor measuring subjective-quality of life (QoL). The current study seeks to investigate the constructvalidity and reliability of the Arabic version of the PWI-A on adults with bilateral hearingimpairment by comparing the single-factor solution with the two-factor solution. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Audio-Vestibular Medicine Unit of Alexandria University from July-2017 to January-2018. A total of 205 adults were interviewed tomeasure the subjective-QoL using the PWI-A instrument. Internal consistency was determinedusing both Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR). Validity was assessed by constructvalidity, including ordinal regression, ordinal exploratory factor analysis (OEFA), and ordinalconfirmatory factor analysis (OCFA). Results: The first four items of the PWI-A which are: satisfaction with living standard, health,achievements, and relationships were the most important indicators of subjective-wellbeing(Part r(2) 0.0547, 0.0324, 0.0361, and 0.0225, respectively). OEFA suggested that the two-factormodel contributes better than the single-factor model. OCFA validated this suggested solution;(two-factor: RMSEA=0.084 (90% CI=0.01-0.14); CFI=0.964; AIC=52.64; single-factor: RMSEA=0.119 (90% CI=0.07-0.17); CFI=0.922; AIC=62.77). Good internal consistency wasalso presented (two-factor: Cronbach’s alpha=0.719, 0.693; single-factor: Cronbach’s alpha =0.750). Conclusion: The Arabic version of the PWI-A is a multidimensional scale that consists of twodimensions: the first is related to subjective-QoL, and the second is related to satisfaction withthe community. Thus, it is recommended to use the short version of the PWI-A with only fouritems to measure subjective-QoL, as it achieved sufficient reliability and construct validity.