Development And Evaluation Of Quality Of Life Instrument For Patients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Objective To develop and evaluate the quality of life instrument for patients of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).Methods Based on systematic research strategies of Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases (QLICD) which emphasized on combination of general module with specific one, the development work was conducted by the programmed decision and associated with Chinese culture background. Literature review, individual interview and focus group discussions were used in the development of instruments. The psychometric properties of instrument were evaluated. The statistic methods used in this research included statistic descriptions, Pearson Correlation, Factor Analysis, Hierarchical Clustering Analysis, Paired t-test, Chi-square Test and Analysis of Covariance.Results(1) Content: One 30-item general module (GM) for chronic diseases was formed. There were three domains in GM: 8-item for physical function (PH), 11-item for psychological function (PS) and 11-item for social function (SO). One14-item specific module for Irritable Bowel Syndrome was formed. Then a 30 plus 14 items instrument for patients of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) shortened as QLICD-IBS (V1.0) was yielded by combination.(2) Validity: Because the item pools were nominated and several-rounds selected by the persons who were strongly related to QOL study, reflecting the definition of health and QOL proposed by WHO and specific problems among patients of IBS, the QLICD-IBS had a considerable content validity. Most of the item scores in one domain had higher correlation to total domain scores than other total domain scores.