Development and testing of a quality of life assessment package.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a measure of quality of life meant for use in an outpatient cardiac population. This study was conducted in three phases. In the first, the aspects (elements) of daily living which should be included in a measure of life quality were determined. A total of 114 subjects were asked to indicate every item in a list of elements to be important or not important to the quality of daily living of cardiac outpatients. The subjects were comprised of: (a) clinic patients in whom permanent cardiac pacemakers had been implanted, (b) clients attending exercise classes at the cardiac rehabilitation and prevention centre, (c) staff of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute working in the pacemaker clinic and the rehabilitation and prevention centre, and (d) family members of the patients/clients. In the second phase a review, of existing quality of life questionnaires, was done to find questions which related to the twenty-two elements considered by the patients/clients to make important contributions to the quality of their daily living. The questionnaire, called the Quality of Life Assessment Package (QLAP), consists of the Duke Activity Status Index, in its entirety, and sections from a number of other questionnaires. The reliability and validity of the QLAP was tested in the third and final phase of the study. Two hundred and twenty-two subjects completed a demographic profile, the QLAP, and a modified version of Spitzer's Quality of Life Uniscale. An analysis of variance, and post-hoc testing showed that total scores on the QLAP differed significantly between chronically ill, acutely ill and healthy subjects. In conclusion: (a) the QLAP is internally consistent (reliable), (b) the QLAP has content validity, (c) the criterion related validity has been supported, and (d) evidence has been provided to support the construct validity of the QLAP. (Abstract shortened by UMI.