Psychometric properties of Quality-of-Life Index for Vietnamese women with breast cancer three weeks postmastectomy

Background

The patient's quality of life immediately after mastectomy usually receives less attention than the quality of life after three months, six months, or a year. It is because the focus is mainly on surgical complications. Many instruments measure the quality of life from three months onwards. Still, the quality-of-life instruments right after postmastectomy are not yet verified.

Objective

This paper aimed to test the reliability and validity of the Quality-of-Life Index Vietnamese version (QOLI-V) in Vietnamese women with breast cancer three weeks postmastectomy.

Methods

The descriptive cross-sectional study was designed to analyze the psychometric properties of a Vietnamese version of the modified Quality of Life Index. The modified process was conducted after granting permission from the original authors. The content validity of the modified index was examined by five experts. Brislin's model was used for the translation process. The 26-item QOLI-V was tested in 265 patients with breast cancer stage II three weeks postmastectomy who expected to have a poorer quality of life score. The reliability of the index was measured using Cronbach's alpha. The construct validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Result

The content validity index results showed that the lowest I-CVI was .80 and the highest was 1.00. S-CVI/Ave was 0.95, and S-CVI/UA was 0.76. The Cronbach's alpha of QOLI-V was .84, which was considered acceptable. Most of the 26 items featured the correct item-total correlation of .30 to .60. There were only two items correlated with the total scale at .18, and the item with the lowest correlation (.06) was deleted from the item set. The CFA of model 1 with 26 items was not an ideal fit with the data, with Chi-Square/df = 2.15, CFI = .815, GFI = .853, TLI = .792, RMSEA = .066. After deleted an item #general quality of life, and the CFA of model 2 was conducted on the 25-item index. The final result indicated the improvement of the model fit, with Chi-Square/df =2.26, CFI = .852, GFI = .814, TLI = .790, RMSEA = .069.

Conclusion

The 25-item QOLI-V version is considered valid and reliable to measure the quality of life of Vietnamese women with breast cancer three weeks postmastectomy. Nurses and midwives could use this instrument to measure the quality of life of the patients, and the patients could use it for self-assessment.

The impact of disease characteristics on multiple sclerosis patients' quality of life

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to investigate the effects of characteristics of MS such as disease course, severity, and relapses on patients' QoL.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study, in which 171 patients were enrolled. Health-related QoL was assessed using the Persian version of the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 questionnaire. To measure patients' disability status, we used the Expanded Disability Status Scale. Other variables included in the study were disease course and relapses of the disease.

RESULTS

The average scores for patients' physical and mental QoL were 60.9±22.3 and 59.5±21.4, respectively. In a bivariate analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were significantly associated with the physical and mental health composite scores. In a hierarchal regression analysis, disease course, severity of the disease, and relapses were responsible for 38 and 16% of the variance in physical and mental QoL, respectively. It was also observed that relapses were a strong predictor of both physical and mental QoL.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results showed that disease characteristics significantly affected both dimensions of QoL. It is therefore suggested that health care providers should be aware of these characteristics of MS to more successfully improve MS patients' QoL.

Comfort, well-being and quality of life: Discussion of the differences and similarities among the concepts

Highlights

The distinction among the concepts of comfort, well-being and QoL is often unclear.This ambiguity can lead to redundancies, gaps, and knowledge dispersion.The concepts are not surrogate terms but related concepts sharing common attributes.

Aim

To analyze the differences and similarities of the concepts of comfort, well-being and quality of life (QoL).

Methods

Review of concept analysis research on PubMed, Cinahl (full text) and Scielo, using the search terms "Comfort", "Well-being", "Quality of Life" and "Concept Analysis".

Results

Eighteen studies were included. Comfort is a broader holistic concept while well-being is mainly related to psycho-spiritual dimensions. QoL reflects the individual perception of satisfaction with life.

Conclusions

The concepts are not surrogate terms, but related concepts sharing common attributes. Caution should be taken in further research, particularly as regards the correct use and framing of the concepts.

Development of a situation-specific theory for explaining health-related quality of life among older South Korean adults with type 2 diabetes

The purpose of the study was to develop a situation-specific theory for explaining health-related quality of life (QOL) among older South Korean adults with type 2 diabetes. To develop a situation-specific theory, three sources were considered: (a) the conceptual model of health promotion and QOL for people with chronic and disabling conditions (an existing theory related to the QOL in patients with chronic diseases); (b) a literature review using multiple databases including Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, PsycINFO, and two Korean databases; and (c) findings from our structural equation modeling study on health-related QOL in older South Korean adults with type 2 diabetes. The proposed situation-specific theory is constructed with six major concepts including barriers, resources, perceptual factors, psychosocial factors, health-promoting behaviors, and health-related QOL. The theory also provides the interrelationships among concepts. Health care providers and nurses could incorporate the proposed situation-specific theory into development of diabetes education programs for improving health-related QOL in older South Korean adults with type 2 diabetes.

Demographic and clinical characteristics associated with quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

PURPOSE

Despite an increasing interest in the relationships among multiple symptoms and quality of life (QOL), little known about the association between anxiety, depression, and pain and both disease-specific and generic QOL in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

METHODS

In a cross-sectional study of 100 COPD patients, disease-specific QOL was measured by St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire and generic QOL by the QOL scale. Anxiety and depression were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and pain was assessed with a numeric rating scale.

RESULTS

Of the 100 patients, 31 % reported clinically meaningful anxiety, 13 % depression, and 45 % reported the presence of pain. Younger patients (p = 0.02) and those with higher anxiety scores (p = 0.02) reported worse disease-specific QOL. Patients with lower physical function (p = 0.04) and those with higher depression scores (p < 0.001) reported worse generic QOL. Age, comorbidity, physical function, anxiety, depression, and pain explained 19.2 and 49.6 % of the variance in disease-specific and generic QOL scores, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study suggest that the relationships between patient characteristics and common symptoms and QOL differ when disease-specific and generic measures of QOL are evaluated. Additional research is warranted to confirm these findings in COPD patients. Clinicians need to evaluate these common symptoms when planning and implementing symptoms management interventions to improve COPD patients' QOL.

Reconnecting with life: a grounded theory study of mental health recovery in Ireland

BACKGROUND

The concept of recovery has become central to international mental health policy and service planning. At present there, however, is no unified theory of mental health recovery available to guide clinical practice.

AIM

The aim of this study was to develop a coherent theory of recovering from mental health problems from the point of view of those recovering in Ireland.

METHODS

The study was guided by classic grounded theory and based on individual interviews with 32 volunteers who had experienced mental health problems.

RESULTS

The participants' main concern was identified as striving to reconnect with life. The core category of reconnecting with life had three interactive subcategories: (1) reconnecting with self through accepting oneself as a worthy human being capable of positive change; (2) reconnecting with others through accepting and validating interaction; (3) reconnecting with time, through getting a glimpse of positive future, coming to terms with the past, and actively shaping and executing one's present and future.

CONCLUSIONS

The study shows that accepting, validating and the hope-instilling interaction can facilitate the process of reconnecting with life and is, therefore, crucial for recovery-oriented care.

Quality of life after children undergo a radical arterial switch operation at an older age

OBJECTIVE

The goal of the study was to evaluate the quality of life of children after the older corrective arterial switch operation (ASO) by means of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), version 4.0.

METHODS

The records of 86 patients who had complete transposition of the great arteries plus a nonrestrictive ventricular septal defect, or a Taussig-Bing anomaly, and severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, and who underwent a corrective ASO at an older age (>6 months) between May 2000 and October 2008 were reviewed retrospectively. Eighty survivors were followed up, and the health-related quality of life of the survivors was evaluated with the PedsQL, version 4.0.

RESULTS

There were 6 hospital deaths. The mean (SD) follow-up interval was 3.5 ± 2.3 years, and the mean age at last visit was 7.0 ± 1.2 years. Two late deaths occurred, and 8 patients were lost to follow-up. Patients who underwent a corrective ASO at an older age showed acceptable scores for all scales, and they were all comparable with those of a healthy population.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that the quality of life of children who undergo a corrective ASO at an older age (>6 months) is acceptable, compared with that of healthy children in China.

A systematic review of analyses of the concept of quality of life in nursing: exploring how form of analysis affects understanding

Quality of life is central to nursing and commonly aimed at the preservation of health-related quality of life. Few rigorous studies address concept development of health-related quality of life. The purpose of this article was to explore quality of life as it is used in nursing by systematically reviewing published concept development. The results found the need for a more robust and rigorous study of the concept and suggest that forms of analysis be used that explicitly explore the concept in context using empirical data along with a broad and clearly defined literature.