The World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF) in women with breast problems1

The aim of this instrumental study was to compare the psychometric properties between World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument, short form (WHOQOL-BREF), data derived from the WHOQOL-100 and data directly from the WHOQOL-BREF and to assess additional psychometric properties of the WHOQOLBREF in women with breast problems. One group (n = 607) completed the WHOQOL100 four times, another group (n = 549) completed the WHOQOL-BREF once. The groups consisted of women with a palpable lump in the breast or an abnormality on a screening mammography. All participants completed measures of anxiety (STAI), depressive symptoms (CES-D), and fatigue (FAS). Women with breast cancer completed a health status measure (EORTC QLQ-BR23). Confirmatory analyses of the WHOQOLBREF-data of both groups showed a reasonably good fit. Cronbach’s alphas of the domains exceeded .70 in both groups, except for Social Relationships. Convergent validity was shown by the moderate to high correlations between scores on the FAS, STAI-State, EORTC QLQ-BR23 and the WHOQOL-BREF domains of physical and psychological health. Good test-retest reliability was found. In conclusion, WHOQOLBREF-data derived from the WHOQOL-100 or obtained from the WHOQOL-BREF are directly comparable, and the WHOQOL-BREF has good psychometric properties in women with breast problems. 1 The authors wish to thank Alida Van der Steeg (PhD, MD) for her contribution to the data collection of this study. 2 Correspondence: CoRPS Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases. Tilburg University. P.O. Box 90153. 5000 LE Tilburg (The Netherlands). E-mail: [email protected]