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PubMed2005

Comparison of two physical activity questionnaires in obese subjects: the NUGENOB study.

PURPOSE: Simple instruments are needed to assess habitual physical activity (PA) in obese subjects. In a multicenter European obesity project, we tested whether PA assessments by two questionnaires were correlated and similarly associated to selected obesity-related variables. METHODS: A total of 757 obese subjects (75% female; age 37.1 [7.9] yr, BMI 35.5 [4.9] kg.m(-2), mean [SD]) completed the Baecke questionnaire (assessing work, sport, and nonsport leisure activity) and the short last 7-d version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ; assessing vigorous, moderate-intensity, walking activity, and sitting). We assessed percent body fat (bioimpedance), waist circumference, and fasting plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, leptin, and FFA. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by the HOMA index for insulin resistance (HOMAIR). RESULTS: Using the IPAQ, only about one third of men and women were classified as insufficiently active. Total habitual PA assessments by the Baecke and IPAQ were significantly related (Spearman rho = 0.51 in total sample, P < or = 0.0001, with adjustment for age, gender, and center). Using principal component analysis, we built two uncorrelated indices corresponding to general obesity (determined by high body fat and leptin) and abdominal obesity (determined by high waist circumference and HOMAIR). PA scores from both questionnaires were negatively related to general and abdominal obesity indices, except for abdominal obesity with the IPAQ in men. CONCLUSIONS: Total PA assessments by the two questionnaires were found to correlate significantly, and the general pattern of associations of PA with general obesity was similar for the two questionnaires. However, the IPAQ may capture less of the relationships between PA and abdominal obesity than the Baecke, especially in men. Reporting of habitual PA in obese subjects with the IPAQ warrants further evaluation against objective assessment methods.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Questionnaire development.

The mail questionnaire is one of the most common forms of research conducted in applied health. It is used primarily for assessing community health needs, exploring opinions on health issues, determining self-reports of health behavior, and aiding program evaluations (Torabi, 1991). The accuracy of conclusions based on questionnaire responses depends upon many factors, including the wording of questions, the physical appearance of the questionnaire (Berdie, Anderson & Niebuhr, 1986; Sudman & Bradburn, 1982), and the response rate (Jones, 1993). Therefore, careful planning must precede the development and administration of any questionnaire. This article, providing a summary of some of the issues and techniques to consider when developing and administering a questionnaire, is organized into two main topics: Writing the questions and increasing response rate. Several subtopics are discussed within each of these two main topics, and suggestions for improving questionnaires are made throughout.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2004

A national survey of health-related quality of life questionnaires in head and neck oncology.

AIMS: To identify the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaires employed by the physicians and surgeons who manage patients with head and neck cancer. Also, to gain an impression of the perceived difficulties and advantages of their use. METHODS: A national survey was performed of active UK consultant clinicians on the mailing list of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists. RESULTS: Of 267 questionnaires, there were 191 replies (71.5%) from clinical oncologists (40), ENT surgeons (53), general surgeon (1), oral and maxillofacial surgeons (59), and plastic surgeons (38). Fifty-five consultants (29%) used HRQOL questionnaires and the most popular questionnaire was the University of Washington Head and Neck Cancer (65%). Questionnaires were most likely to be used both before and after treatment (67%) and administered in clinic by either nursing staff or consultants. The main reasons for not using HRQOL questionnaires included lack of resources and proven value. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the vast amount of literature on the importance of HRQOL in head and neck cancer, this survey shows that there is still a substantial amount of work required before HRQOL measurement becomes an established part of routine practice.

Head and Neck Neoplasms↗
PubMed2000

Development of the school organisational health questionnaire: a measure for assessing teacher morale and school organisational climate.

BACKGROUND: A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that organisational factors are more important than classroom specific issues in determining teacher morale. Accordingly, it is necessary to have available measures that accurately assess morale, as well as the organisational factors that are likely to underpin the experience of morale. AIM: Three studies were conducted with the aim of developing a psychometrically sound questionnaire that could be used to assess teacher morale and various dimensions of school organisational climate. SAMPLE: A total of 1,520 teachers from 18 primary and 26 secondary schools in the Australian state of Victoria agreed to participate in three separate studies (N = 615, 342 and 563 in Studies 1, 2 and 3, respectively) that were used to develop the questionnaire. The demographic profile of the teachers was similar to that found in the Department as a whole. METHOD: All teaching staff in the participating schools were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire as part of the evaluation of an organisational development programme. RESULTS: A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to establish the questionnaire's factor structure, and correlation analyses were used to examine the questionnaire's convergent and discriminant validity. CONCLUSIONS: The three studies resulted in the 54-item School Organisational Health Questionnaire that measures teacher morale and 11 separate dimensions of school organisational climate: appraisal and recognition, curriculum coordination, effective discipline policy, excessive work demands, goal congruence, participative decision-making, professional growth, professional interaction, role clarity, student orientation, and supportive leadership.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Zygosity diagnosis in young twins by questionnaire for twins' mothers and twins' self-reports.

The present study deals with the determination of zygosity in twins of childhood age by simple questionnaire. The subjects were 224 twin pairs and their mothers, consisting of 159 monozygotic and 65 same-sex dizygotic pairs, identified by genetic markers including DNA samples. Mothers of twins responded to 19 questionnaire items dealing with twin similarity in 16 items about physical features and 3 items about the degree of similarity and frequency of being mistaken (confusion of identity) when twins were about 1 year of age. The twins themselves responded to three questionnaire items dealing with only confusion of identity items. The results of stepwise logistic regression analysis were as follows: the total accuracy of the mothers' questionnaire was 91.5% when using only the items dealing with confusion of identity. This accuracy was slightly lower than that obtained by twins' self-reports dealing with nearly the same question items of confusion of identity, answered by both twins separately with 93.3% accuracy. The total accuracy of mothers' questionnaire responses rose to 95.1% when we used all 19 items. In addition to "the frequency of being mistaken", two physical features, namely "shape of fingers" and "shape of eyebrow", were very informative. In conclusion, twin zygosity can be estimated by the use of the mothers' simple questionnaire with sufficient accuracy even in very young twins about 1 year of age.

Female↗
PubMed1999

Measuring persistent cough in children in epidemiological studies: development of a questionnaire and assessment of prevalence in two countries.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Cough is a common symptom in children that is frequently encountered in general practice. However, most of the information on the prevalence of persistent cough has come from studies that use different, often ambiguous, definitions for persistent cough. It is therefore important that a validated questionnaire to accurately measure persistent cough is developed and is appropriate for use in different age groups of children and in different cultures. Such a questionnaire is essential for accurately measuring the prevalence of persistent cough and the factors associated with its occurrence. DESIGN: A parent-administered respiratory questionnaire was developed and administered twice during a 3-week interval pilot study to test repeatability. The questionnaire was then administered to a randomly selected cross-section of Australian children aged 5 to 7 years old and 8 to 11 years old (N = 511 and N = 654, respectively), and to 566 Nigerian children aged 8 to 11 years old. RESULTS: The new questionnaire was reliable, with most of the questions having a kappa value of above 0.6. The prevalence of persistent cough was similar in younger and older Australian children, but significantly less in Nigerian children (p < 0.001). Also, persistent cough was more prevalent in children of high rather than low socioeconomic status among older Australian children (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The newly developed questionnaire will be an important tool in epidemiological studies for measuring the prevalence, morbidity, and risk factors of persistent cough in childhood. Although our findings showed that persistent cough does not occur more frequently in younger than in older Australian children, it is more frequent in Australian than in Nigerian children.

Australia↗
PubMed2001

Development and psychometric properties of a disease-specific quality of life questionnaire for adult patients with growth hormone deficiency.

BACKGROUND: Adults with growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD) may experience physical and psychological disturbances, which can affect their quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a disease-specific module from the previously published QOL measure Questions on Life Satisfaction Modules (QLS(M)): the QLS(M)-H that specifically addressed the needs of patients with hypopituitarism. A second aim was for the questionnaire to be applicable across different cultural backgrounds in order to evaluate the efficacy of therapy in large, international clinical trials, thus providing additional clinical endpoints for these studies. DESIGN: A preliminary German language version of the QLS(M)-H was developed from 26 semi-structured interviews of adults with GHD. The questionnaire was then independently translated into five other languages and applied in open, non-controlled, multicentre, longitudinal studies to patient (n=717) and normative populations (n=2700). METHODS: A revised, nine-item version of the questionnaire was developed, based on previously defined criteria, and was evaluated for reliability and validity. Sensitivity to detect changes after GH replacement was also assessed. RESULTS: The 16 items of the preliminary questionnaire were reduced to nine items on the basis of the correlation of items/factors from initial patient interviews. Psychometric analysis revealed the reliability of the nine-item scale. The Cronbach's alpha scores ranged from 0.81 to 0.89 and the test-retest correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.88, all of which indicate reliability over time. Mean scores increased significantly during GH replacement therapy, with observed changes greater than those seen with the non-specific modules of the QLS(M), indicating the sensitivity of the scale. CONCLUSIONS: The QLS(M)-H questionnaire is concise, easy to complete, and can be effectively applied across different cultural backgrounds. Psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire reveals that it is a valid, reliable and sensitive tool useful for assessing impaired life satisfaction in adult patients with GHD and also for monitoring the efficacy of GH therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Targeted testing of children for tuberculosis: validation of a risk assessment questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: Given the directive of the American Academy of Pediatrics to test children for tuberculosis (TB) only if they are at high risk for the disease, we sought to determine how well a risk assessment questionnaire can predict a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) result among children seen in a medical office setting. METHODS: In a prospective observational study, we identified 31 926 children who received well-child care in 18 pediatric offices of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region from August 1996 through November 1998 and who were due to receive a routine TST (Mantoux method) as part of universal screening. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire about risk factors for TB infection that included demographic information. The TST result at 48 to 72 hours was compared with questionnaire responses to identify responses that were most highly associated with a positive TST result at both the 10-mm and 15-mm cutoffs. A concurrent study was conducted to determine whether parents can recognize induration. RESULTS: This population was diverse in age (range: 0-18 years), race/ethnicity (white: 37%; Hispanic: 26.4%; Asian: 15.0%; black: 11.8%; other: 8.4%; not stated by parent: 1.6%), and household annual income (range: $10 524-$175 282). Overall incidence of positive TST results was 1.0% at the 10-mm cutoff and 0.5% at the 15-mm cutoff. Positive predictive value of selected individual risk factors at the 10-mm cutoff were: child born outside the United States, 10.4%; history of receiving bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, 5.5%; and child having lived outside the United States, 5.3%. Using multivariate analysis, we selected a subset of risk factors that were independently and significantly associated with a positive TST result >/=10 mm: history of receiving bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (odds ratio [OR]: 2.31; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.70-3.13); household member with history of positive TST result or TB disease (OR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.14-2.04); child born outside the United States (OR: 8.63; 95% CI: 6.16-12.09); child having lived outside the United States (OR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.49-2.85); and race/ethnicity reported by parent as Asian (OR: 2.28; 95% CI: 1.59-3.27) or Hispanic (OR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.09-2.26). Several factors were not statistically significant predictors of a positive TST result: age, sex, household annual income, household member infected with human immunodeficiency virus or who had stayed in a homeless shelter, and being an adopted or foster child. Overall sensitivity of the 9 main items on the questionnaire was 80.9%; when a subset of 4 of these questions plus the race/ethnicity questions were used, sensitivity of responses was 83.5%. Parents failed to recognize positive TST results at a rate of 9.9% (for the 10-mm cutoff) and 5.9% (at the 15-mm cutoff). CONCLUSION: A 5-question risk assessment questionnaire completed by parents can be used to accurately identify risk factors associated with TB infection in children. In our population, some risk factors suggested by the American Academy of Pediatrics could not be validated. Parents cannot be relied on to read TST results accurately. Screening for TB can be enabled by using a standardized, validated questionnaire to identify children who should be given tuberculin skin testing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

[Validation of a questionnaire for the diagnosis of headache in an outpatient clinic at a university hospital].

Headache is a common complaint with a high prevalence in ambulatory settings. The physical and neurological examinations are frequently normal. The use of questionnaires as a screening methods for patients with primary headache could facilitate the diagnosis in non-specialized medical centers. In the present study, we used a questionnaire, based on the IHS criteria and modified by the authors, applied to 204 patients from the outpatient clinic of the Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. Half of the patients were submitted to a clinical interview. We compared the results of the questionnaire with the results of the medical interview (gold standard). Most of the headaches we studied were primary headaches (89.6%). The questionnaire revealed a sensitivity of 90.2% and specificity of 57.9% for migraine detection with a chance corrected agreement (kappa) of 0.47 and a positive predictive (PPV) value of 65.7% and a negative predictive value (NPV) de 86.8%. The sensitivity for tension-type headache detection was 60.8% and the specificity 87.1% with a kappa value of 0.49 and a PPV of 77.8% and a NPV of 75.9%. We conclude that this questionnaire can be used as a screening method for diagnosing headache and that it can be applied by non-medical personnel. This questionnaire could also be used for population studies.

Female↗
PubMed2006

[Validation of a questionnaire for epilepsy diagnosis in primary care services].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the usefulness of a questionnaire in primary health care services for establishing the diagnosis of epilepsy in children from 1 to 10 years old and for classifying their epileptic seizures. METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 2004. There were 204 children in the study (102 diagnosed with epilepsy and 102 without epilepsy). The children were randomly selected at the Regional Center of Epilepsies and the Vincent Corral Moscoso Hospital, which are both in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. For the study, each child with epilepsy was matched with a child without epilepsy, in two age groups: 1 to 5 years old and 6 to 10 years old. Four students who were in their last academic year in the School of Medicine of Cuenca and who did not know the child's diagnosis utilized the questionnaire with a family member or other guardian of the child. The validity, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the questionnaire were calculated, with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). The clinical diagnosis carried out by specialists was used as the gold standard. RESULTS: The assessment showed that the questionnaire had good sensitivity (95.10%; 95% CI: 94.58%-95.61%) and good specificity (97.06%; 95% CI: 96.58%-97.59%). Validity was 96.08% (95% CI: 95.84%-96.36%), with a positive predictive value of 97.00% (95% CI: 96.48%-97.52%) and a negative predictive value of 95.19% (95% CI: 94.74%-95.74%). The level of agreement in the classification of the epileptic seizures carried out by the neurologists and by the medical students who used the questionnaire was satisfactory for the generalized seizures (kappa = 0.67). Upon testing for interobserver agreement among the specialists, the kappa value for the diagnoses was 0.80 among the neurologists and 0.89 among the pediatricians. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic questionnaire that was assessed has good sensitivity and adequate specificity, and, after brief training, primary health care general practitioners can use it to help them diagnose epileptic seizures.

Child↗
PubMed2001

International validation of the CLAU-S quality-of-life questionnaire for use in patients with intermittent claudication.

BACKGROUND: Intermittent claudication (IC) occurs in patients with peripheral occlusive arterial disease and results in leg pain after walking a certain distance - the claudication distance. Until recently, no specific questionnaire has been available to measure quality of life in patients with IC. OBJECTIVES: To validate the Claudication Scale (CLAU-S) questionnaire in patients in France, the UK, Germany and Belgium. METHODS: Patients completed the CLAU-S questionnaire and provided demographic and clinical data. Pooled data were examined for psychometric and structural validity and test-retest reliability. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to confirm that the questionnaire was measuring the causal relationships involved in IC in each of the language groups studied. RESULTS: Cross-sectional and factor analysis confirmed the validity of the questionnaire in the pooled patient population. Item convergent and discriminant coefficients and internal consistency reliability coefficients met or exceeded standard criteria. Principal component analysis confirmed the factorial structure. The underlying causal relationships in IC were identified using SEM and were consistent in all language groups studied. CONCLUSIONS: The CLAU-S questionnaire has undergone validation in English, French, German and Flemish and has a very satisfactory validity in these languages.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Evaluation of a self-reported questionnaire on hand dermatosis in secondary school children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a self-reported questionnaire for estimating the prevalence of hand eczema and other hand dermatoses. All pupils in grades 1 and 3 from the secondary schools in Växjö, in southern Sweden, were invited to participate in the study, which consisted of two parts, a questionnaire and a clinical examination. Of those invited, 2572 (98.6%) responded to the questionnaire. Of the respondents, 2535 pupils (98.5%) were clinically examined. The kappa value for the questionnaire findings, compared with the diagnosis from the clinical examination, was 0.79, indicating good agreement. The sensitivity of the questionnaire findings was 73% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.6425-0.7975), and the specificity was 99% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9860-0.9940). The self-reported questionnaire was suitable for detecting hand dermatosis in a population of secondary school children and may be used as a cost-effective and reliable method of investigating the prevalence of hand dermatosis in epidemiological studies.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Development of a questionnaire to measure the effects of chronic pain on health-related quality of life in dogs.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a reliable, validated questionnaire that can be used for the assessment of chronic pain and its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in dogs. SAMPLE POPULATION: 17 owners of dogs that had chronic pain associated with chronic degenerative joint disease and 165 other dog owners. PROCEDURES: Psychometric methods were used to identify relevant domains, create an item pool, select and validate items, and construct and preliminarily test a structured questionnaire. Relevant domains were identified through semi structured interviews. Descriptor-generating exercises provided the terms owners used to describe these domains and formed an item pool. A selection from this pool was validated and used to construct a questionnaire that underwent preliminary testing. RESULTS: The structured questionnaire contained 109 simple, familiar, descriptive terms associated with good health or chronic pain (most describing subtle aspects of behavior that owners interpreted as expressions of subjective experiences of their dogs) for 13 possible HRQL domains. Each descriptor was associated with a 7-point numeric scale. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The questionnaire was intended to facilitate rapid, sensitive, and accurate rating of a comprehensive range of relevant domains by naïve raters with minimal burden on respondents. The principles underlying the development and design of this structured questionnaire offer a novel approach to the proxy measurement of HRQL and changes in HRQL associated with chronic pain for a range of animal species. IMPACT FOR HUMAN MEDICINE: This novel approach may be applicable to other nonverbal populations (eg, young children or elderly people with cognitive impairment).

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Informed consent, deception, and the use of disguised alcohol questionnaires.

In preparation for a physician intervention trial to determine the effectiveness of treatment of alcoholism in a primary care setting, a study was conducted to determine patient reaction to a masked alcohol screening questionnaire. The disguised questionnaire was developed to improve the accuracy of self-reported drinking behavior and facilitate blinded randomization to an intervention and control group. Patient reaction was determined by a face-to-face structured interview. The interview was structured to elicit responses before and after the patient was informed of the true nature of the questionnaire. The sample consisted of 21 alcoholic and 33 nonalcoholic patients in a primary care clinic. Seventy-five percent of the respondents were comfortable not being fully informed when research procedures involve the use of disguised alcohol questionnaires. There was some discomfort over the deceptive nature of the questionnaire, but 83% of the subjects believed the deception was justified and necessary. Males and alcoholics in the sample were more comfortable not being fully informed about research procedures suggesting greater trust in the medical profession. Females, on the other hand, were more concerned than males about how a family member would react to the disclosure of family health information. Alcoholics and persons with only a high school education felt the use of disguised questionnaires improved their accuracy significantly more often than nonalcoholics or individuals in the sample who attended graduate school.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Evaluation of a new asthma questionnaire.

The new International Union Against Tuberculosis (IUAT) bronchial symptoms questionnaire was completed by 827 subjects participating in a prospective study of respiratory symptoms and lung function in aluminum smelter workers. A modified Medical Research Council (MRC) questionnaire was also administered. Bronchial reactivity (BR) was measured in 809 subjects by methacholine challenge using a rapid method. Factor analysis demonstrated sensible clustering of responses to items unique to the new questionnaire such as nocturnal, spontaneous, and postexertional dyspnea, dust-induced dyspnea and tightness, and breathing difficulty. Responses to IUAT questions concerning past asthma, wheeze, chest tightness, morning cough and sputum, and asthma medication agreed well with corresponding items from the MRC questionnaire. Questions concerning asthma, medication, dust-induced, nocturnal, and spontaneous dyspnea, chest tightness, wheeze, nocturnal cough, postexertional dyspnea and breathing difficulty also had high validity against the criterion of concurrently measured bronchial reactivity. It is concluded that the IUAT questionnaire is a valid asthma questionnaire.

Asthma↗
PubMed1999

Alternatives in screening at school entry: comparison of the childhood middle ear disease and hearing questionnaire (CMEDHQ) and the pure tone sweep test.

Some health authorities in the UK are discontinuing hearing screening at school entry, mainly because the pure tone sweep test is under-specific (i.e. fails too many children) and thus leads to unnecessary and costly, but unproductive, follow-up assessment. A screening method with different properties such as a questionnaire could be a more cost-effective method of mass screening children. The MRC Institute of Hearing Research has developed and evaluated through several stages such a screening questionnaire (the Childhood Middle Ear Disease and Hearing Questionnaire (CMEDHQ), containing 11 scored questions under two broad headings: history and presentation of the disease, and consultation/treatment history. In a service-based evaluation, 2860 mainstream reception-year school children from two consecutive years, attending schools in south west Cumbria in the North-West Regional Health Authority received the sweep test and the CMEDHQ. (Although predominantly designed to detect middle ear problems, the questionnaire also has some potential to detect permanent hearing loss; thus providing a useful backstop for detection of permanent losses either missed or not present in earlier infancy.) The screening CMEDHQ obtained a very high response rate (90%). Follow-up included 235 control cases as well as all pure tone sweep test failures. Analysis, by use of a definition of cases conservative with respect to the sensitivity of the questionnaire, showed that the CMEDHQ has better specificity, but slightly lower sensitivity, than the pure tone sweep test for composite system decision (where 'case' = treated at ENT; 'non-case' = pass at whatever stage was reached before discharge). Follow-up indicated that the limited method available for assessing sensitivity might give an over-favourable view of the pure tone sweep test. Possible improvement of questionnaire sensitivity by further refinements is under examination. The findings show that it is worth conducting a fully parallel multi-district cost-effectiveness comparison of the pure tone sweep test versus the CMEDHQ.

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗
PubMed2003

A Korean rheumatic diseases screening questionnaire.

The aim of our study was to develop a Korean rheumatic diseases-screening questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed based on American College of Rheumatology criteria for rheumatic diseases and a connective tissue diseases screening questionnaire. Two groups of patients were selected and completed the questionnaire: (i) those with osteoarthritis (n=46), rheumatoid arthritis (n=52), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=50), scleroderma (n=8), polymyositis or dermatomyositis (n=7), Sjogren's disease (n=4), and mixed connective-tissue disease (n=9) as case subjects; and (ii) those with fibromyalgia (n=8) and general disease without evidence of any rheumatic disease (n=72) as controls. Laboratory results were analyzed for correlation with actual data using kappa (kappa) statistics. Test-retest reliability was performed in 12 patients, and showed strong agreement between the first and second interviews (kappa=0.91). The sensitivity of the questionnaire ranged from 77.8 to 100%, and specificity ranged from 68.8 to 95.0%. Negative predictive values were very high in the general population, from 98.4 to 99.99%. The kappa statistic for agreement between laboratory items was 0.22-0.56, except for rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibody test, and muscle enzyme level. We have developed a simple and sensitive Korean rheumatic diseases-screening questionnaire for the epidemiologic study of rheumatic diseases in Korea.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The impact of vertebral fractures on quality of life in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Validity of the Italian version of mini-Osteoporosis Quality of Life Questionnaire.].

BACKGROUND: Vertebral fracture is one of the most commonly occurring osteoporotic fractures. Vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis are a major cause of pain in elderly people and may hardly affect patient's health-related quality of life (HRQOL), making this an important parameter for assessment in these patients. Studies comparing the performance of HRQOL instruments in osteoporosis are lacking. OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to assess the effect of vertebral fractures on health HRQOL in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis and to investigate the validity of the Italian version of the mini-Osteoporosis Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-OQOL) in a clinical setting. METHODS: Patients were divided into two study groups, according to fracture status: vertebral fractures (41 patients) and no vertebral fractures (27 patients). Baseline assessments of anthropometric data, medical history, and prevalent fracture status were obtained from all participants. All of the participants were evaluated using both disease-targeted mini-OQOL and QUALEFFO, generic instrument (EUROQoL), disability scale (Roland Morris Disability questionnaire- RMDQ) and chronic pain grade questionnaire. RESULTS: Vertebral fractures due to osteoporosis significantly decreases scores on physical function, socio-emotional status, clinical symptoms, and overall HRQOL. Both disease-targeted questionnaires showing an association between the number of prevalent vertebral fractures and decreased HRQOL. Significant correlations existed between scores of similar domains of mini-OQOL and the QUALEFFO, especially for symptoms, physical function, activities of daily living and social function. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of mini-OQOL and the QUALEFFO indicated that both questionnaires were significantly predictive of vertebral fractures. Number of concomitant diseases presented a weak significant correlation with EUROQoL (p=0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the patients with vertebral fractures due to osteoporosis have a relevant impairment in quality of life. Both disease-targeted questionnaires discriminated between patients with and without vertebral fractures though the mini-OQOL, originally developed to measure the effect of vertebral fractures on quality of life, showed slightly better discriminant power. The benefit of the mini-OQOL is that it is efficient, self administered, and requires 3-4 minutes to complete.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗