Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of QOLIE-10 in Epilepsy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It is necessary in clinical practice to screen patients with epilepsy for quality-of-life factors. The purpose of this study was to develop a Korean version of the Quality of Life in Epilepsy (QOLIE)-10 survey and to determine its reliability and validity. METHODS Data were collected from 397 adult epilepsy patients. The ten items of QOLIE-10 were derived from the Korean version of QOLIE-31. We assessed factor analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliabilities, construct validity, and discriminant validity. Test-retest was performed in 97 patients. RESULTS The ten items of QOLIE-10 were grouped into two factors: epilepsy effects/role function (driving, social, work, physical effect, mental effect, and memory) and mental health (overall quality of life, depression, and energy). The internal consistency reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.843 for epilepsy effects/role function and 0.606 for the mental-health scale. Test - retest data revealed statistically significant correlations for individual items (range, r=0.66-0.38) and scales (range, r=0.63-0.48), except for one item, driving (r=0.21, p=0.133). QOLIE-10 was significantly correlated with the source scales in the Korean version of QOLIE-31 and with several external measures. The QOLIE-10 scores discriminated between patient groups according to their seizure severity and level of education. CONCLUSIONS QOLIE-10 was derived from the Korean version of QOLIE-31. The results of this study show that QOLIE-10 can be applied as a screening measure of quality of life in Korean epilepsy patients.