Development and Evaluation of Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases–Chronic Pulmonary Heart Disease (QLICD-CPHD) (V2.0)

Objective: To develop a quality of life (QOL) instrument specific to chronic pulmonary heart disease (CPHD) and to evaluate its reliability, validity, and responsiveness. Methods: Under the Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases (QLICD) system, the QLICD-CPHD (V2.0) was developed and used to measure the QOL of 184 patients with CPHD. Data were analyzed by statistical description, linear correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and paired t-test. Results: The QLICD-CPHD (V2.0) consisted of 44 items, including 28 in the general module and 16 in the specific module. The Cronbach’s α coefficients of four domains in the general module and the specific module were greater than 0.7, and the split-half reliability coefficients were between 0.6 and 0.8, indicating that the instrument has good reliability. The instrument showed good validity as the correlation coefficients among items of the same domain were significantly higher than those among items of different domains. Correlation coefficients r between the corresponding domains of SF-36 and QLICD-CPHD were between 0.26 and 0.60, which suggests that QLICD-CPHD has moderate criterion validity. Paired t-tests of scores of patients before and after treatment showed significant differences in the overall score, scores of general module domains except social role, and scores of the specific module. Standardized response means were greater than 0.2, suggesting that the instrument had moderate responsiveness and was sensitive to changes in the patients’ QOL. Conclusion: The QLICD-CPHD (V2.0) has good reliability, validity, and responsiveness. The instrument can be used to evaluate the QOL of CPHD patients.