Cargando…

Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref) is a frequently used instrument to assess the quality of life in both healthy and ill populations. Inquiries of the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-Bref report that the validity and reliability is generally...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kalfoss, Mary H., Reidunsdatter, Randi J., Klöckner, Christian A., Nilsen, Marianne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01656-x
_version_ 1783633732267147264
author Kalfoss, Mary H.
Reidunsdatter, Randi J.
Klöckner, Christian A.
Nilsen, Marianne
author_facet Kalfoss, Mary H.
Reidunsdatter, Randi J.
Klöckner, Christian A.
Nilsen, Marianne
author_sort Kalfoss, Mary H.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref) is a frequently used instrument to assess the quality of life in both healthy and ill populations. Inquiries of the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-Bref report that the validity and reliability is generally satisfactory. However, some studies fail to support a four-factor dimensionality; others report poor reliability of the social and environmental domain; and there may be some challenges of supporting construct validity across age. This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the Norwegian WHOQOL-Bref and extends previous research by testing for measurement invariance across age, gender and education level. In addition, we provide updated normative data for the Norwegian population. METHODS: We selected a random sample of the Norwegian population (n = 654) aged 18–75 years. Participants filled out the WHOQOL-Bref, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and various sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: We found an acceptable convergent and discriminate validity and internal consistency of the physical, psychological and environmental domains, but a marginal reliability was found for the social domain. The factor loadings were invariant across gender, education and age. Some items had low factor loadings and explained variance, and the model fit for the age group 60–75 years were less satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: The original four-factor dimensionality of the WHOQOL-Bref displayed a better fit to the data compared to the one-factor solution and is recommended for use in the Norwegian population. The WHOQOL-Bref is suitable to use across gender, education and age, but for assessment in the oldest age group, the WHOQOL-Old module could be a good supplementary, but further studies are needed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7792093
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77920932021-01-11 Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population Kalfoss, Mary H. Reidunsdatter, Randi J. Klöckner, Christian A. Nilsen, Marianne Health Qual Life Outcomes Research BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref) is a frequently used instrument to assess the quality of life in both healthy and ill populations. Inquiries of the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-Bref report that the validity and reliability is generally satisfactory. However, some studies fail to support a four-factor dimensionality; others report poor reliability of the social and environmental domain; and there may be some challenges of supporting construct validity across age. This paper evaluates the psychometric properties of the Norwegian WHOQOL-Bref and extends previous research by testing for measurement invariance across age, gender and education level. In addition, we provide updated normative data for the Norwegian population. METHODS: We selected a random sample of the Norwegian population (n = 654) aged 18–75 years. Participants filled out the WHOQOL-Bref, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and various sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: We found an acceptable convergent and discriminate validity and internal consistency of the physical, psychological and environmental domains, but a marginal reliability was found for the social domain. The factor loadings were invariant across gender, education and age. Some items had low factor loadings and explained variance, and the model fit for the age group 60–75 years were less satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: The original four-factor dimensionality of the WHOQOL-Bref displayed a better fit to the data compared to the one-factor solution and is recommended for use in the Norwegian population. The WHOQOL-Bref is suitable to use across gender, education and age, but for assessment in the oldest age group, the WHOQOL-Old module could be a good supplementary, but further studies are needed. BioMed Central 2021-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7792093/ /pubmed/33413455 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01656-x Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Kalfoss, Mary H.
Reidunsdatter, Randi J.
Klöckner, Christian A.
Nilsen, Marianne
Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title_full Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title_fullStr Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title_full_unstemmed Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title_short Validation of the WHOQOL-Bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the Norwegian general population
title_sort validation of the whoqol-bref: psychometric properties and normative data for the norwegian general population
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01656-x
work_keys_str_mv AT kalfossmaryh validationofthewhoqolbrefpsychometricpropertiesandnormativedataforthenorwegiangeneralpopulation
AT reidunsdatterrandij validationofthewhoqolbrefpsychometricpropertiesandnormativedataforthenorwegiangeneralpopulation
AT klocknerchristiana validationofthewhoqolbrefpsychometricpropertiesandnormativedataforthenorwegiangeneralpopulation
AT nilsenmarianne validationofthewhoqolbrefpsychometricpropertiesandnormativedataforthenorwegiangeneralpopulation