Validation of the EQ-5D in Taiwan using item response theory

A Systematic Review of the Psychosocial Impact of Endometriosis before and after Treatment

While endometriosis is a common gynecologic disease associated with infertility, the psychosocial impact of endometriosis has not been evaluated against various quality of life (QoL) instruments and compared with other chronic illnesses. We rigorously analyzed the psychosocial burden of endometriosis in adult women and compared standardized and validated QoL scores of women with and without endometriosis, before and following treatment, and against other chronic illnesses. We searched PubMed, PsychINFO Embase, and Cochrane Reviews and ClinicalTrials.gov from January 1990 to December 2022 for publications using a detailed list of search terms related to QoL, endometriosis, and questionnaires. Only English-language publications that evaluated the association between Endometriosis and QoL using standardized and validated questionnaires measured at baseline and following treatment were considered. Four reviewers first performed a title and abstract screening followed by full text-review to finalize included articles. QoL scores of women with endometriosis were measured at baseline and analyzed against women without endometriosis and women with endometriosis who had undergone treatment. Additionally, baseline endometriosis scores were assessed against the published QoL scores of populations with other chronic conditions. Assessment of risk of bias was performed in accordance with Cochrane and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale guidelines. A total of 30 articles were included in this review: 4 randomized trials and 26 observational studies. The diagnosis and experience of women with symptomatic endometriosis had an equal or worse QoL score than that of other chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer when compared using the 36-Item Short Form Survey and World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaires. Evidence showed association between low QoL and infertility, sexual dysfunction, mental health struggles, physical pain, poor sleep and fatigue. QoL scores were lower at baseline compared to following treatment in the majority of these domains. Endometriosis is associated with significant psychosocial burden and impaired QoL scores across baseline measurements in comparison to controls and other chronic illnesses. Medical and surgical interventions significantly decreased experienced burdens and improved QoL of women with endometriosis.

Patient-reported quality of life and working status outcomes in ambulatory patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the health-related quality of life (HR-QoL), work productivity and activity impairment and associated factors among patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM).

METHODS

This was an observational, cross-sectional study. The 189 ambulatory patients with IIM were recruited from May 2019 to May 2022. HR-QoL was measured by the European Quality of Life 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire. The Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) questionnaire was used to evaluate work productivity and activity impairment. The IIM-related parameters were assessed by the 8-item Manual Muscle Test (MMT-8), Myositis Disease Activity Assessment visual analogue scale (MYOACT), Myositis Damage Index (MDI), Disease Activity Score (DAS) and Physician/Patient Global Assessment (PhGA/PtGA). Quantile regression and ordinal logistic regression were performed to identify the factors, considering EQ-5D or WPAI scores as dependent variables, respectively.

RESULTS

Of the 189 IIM patients enrolled, 60% had DM, 13% had PM and 27% had clinical amyopathic DM. The median EQ-5D score was 1.00 (95% CI 0.73, 1.00), 28% were employed and 45% of overall work was impaired due to health problems. EQ-5D values were positively associated with MMT-8 and negatively with MYOACT, DAS, MDI-global and PhGA/PtGA. For the WPAI, activity impairment was associated with a lower MMT-8 score, older onset age and higher PhGA only in 25th-75th percentile. Increased PtGA was associated with increased activity and overall working productivity impairment in most quantiles (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Multiple disease characteristics were associated with reduced HR-QoL or working productivity impairment in patients with IIM, especially for PtGA.

Translation and validation of the Taiwanese SarQoL, a quality of life questionnaire specific to sarcopenia

BACKGROUND

The Sarcopenia Quality of Life (SarQoL) questionnaire has been translated into various languages. This study validated the Taiwanese version of the SarQoL (SarQoL-TW) questionnaire.

METHODS

Forward-backward translation was conducted, along with a test of the prefinal version of the translated questionnaire. To validate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, 50 older adults with sarcopenia and 50 older adults without sarcopenia completed the SarQoL-TW, the Short Form12 Health Survey (SF-12), and the EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Participants with sarcopenia were asked to complete the SarQoL-TW questionnaire once more after 2 weeks. Validating the psychometric properties of the SarQoL-TW questionnaire involved assessing its discriminative power, internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and potential floor and ceiling effects.

RESULTS

The SarQoL-TW questionnaire was translated without major difficulties. The psychometric analysis revealed that older adults with sarcopenia scored significantly lower on the SarQoL-TW, both overall and in some of the domains. The Cronbach's alpha of 0.846 indicated high internal consistency. The SarQoL-TW questionnaire correlated well with similar constructs on the SF-12 and EQ-5D-3L for convergent validity and correlated weakly with distinct domains for divergent validity, confirming its favorable construct validity. The test-retest reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.970). Neither floor nor ceiling effects were observed.

CONCLUSION

The SarQoL-TW questionnaire is a reliable and valid questionnaire, useful for assessing quality of life in older adults with sarcopenia in clinical practice and research.