A 74-item QoL scale for BPH (prior test version; BPH-QLS), including five domains (disease, physical, social, psychological, satisfaction) was developed and had good reliability and validity. The test-retest correlation coefficient and Cronbach's a coefficient of the BPH-QLS were 0.892 and 0.966. Thirteen common factors were extracted according to the conceptual model. The correlations of the BPH-QLS with the Short Form-36, the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), and IPSS QoL score, and a published BPH-specific QoL scale were 0.784, 0.493, 0.462 and 0.762, respectively. The BPH-QLS could be used to discriminate among patients with a different QoL. CONCLUSIONThe new scale is reliable, valid and sensitive, and we recommend using the BPH-QLS in Chinese and Chinese-born patients worldwide to assist in clinical practice. KEYWORDSquality of life, scale, benign prostatic hyperplasia, validity, reliability OBJECTIVETo develop and validate a quality of life (QoL) scale for Chinese patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). PATIENTS AND METHODSAccording to the QoL definition of the World Health Organisation, we adhered to the rigorous guidelines of instrument development to form a pool of items, selected items and validated the scale, using data from 256 patients with BPH. INTRODUCTIONBPH is one of the most common conditions associated with ageing in men and has been reported at autopsy in ª 40% of men aged 50-60 and in up to 70% aged > 60 years. A study of BPH in the general population in the Netherlands showed that the prevalence of BPH was lowest among men aged 45-49 years (2.7%) and increased with age to a maximum at 80 years (24%) [1]. In China, with the proportion of elderly increasing and with life-style changes, the incidence of BPH has increased in recent years. In 1998 the incidence of BPH in China was reportedly similar to that in developed countries [2]. An investigation of 30 provinces showed that of all urology inpatients, BPH accounted for 16%. It has become one of the primary diseases in urology [3]. Both BPH and some of the treatments for it can compromise the patients' quality of life (QoL) [4]. The International Consensus on Urological Disease stated that 'for men with symptomatic BPH who have not developed serious complications, the primary goal of medical therapy is to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. ' [5]. Therefore, measuring QoL can be indispensable to studies of the long-term effectiveness of BPH treatment strategies. Several BPH-specific QoL scales have been published, e.g. the IPSS, the Danish Prostate Symptom Score (DAN-PSS-1), the International Continence Society 'male' questionnaire short-form (ICSmale-SF), and the Prostate Outcomes Questionnaire [6][7][8][9][10]. However, the translation difficulties among different cultures have not been fully addressed and no previous work has been reported in China. The aim of the present study was to develop a QoL scale for Chinese patients with BPH, to assist in clinical practice. PATIENTS AND METHODSFrom July 2002 to Janua...

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Objective: In contrast to the drug situation in the rest of the world, synthetic drugs, rather than traditional drugs, have been the dominant abused drugs in China since 2019. However, the public misconception that synthetic drugs are not as addictive as traditional drugs, such as opioids and the scarcity of specific measurement instruments, have hindered the clinical diagnosis and treatment of synthetic drug abusers, thus the development of a localized instrument to evaluate dependence on synthetic drugs is in urgently needed.Method: Using a sample of 618 Chinese synthetic drug abusers (Mean age = 34.69 years; 44.17% female), the present study developed and examined the psychometric properties of a self-reporting instrument, the Synthetic Drug Dependence Scale (SDDS), which consists of four subscales: physical dependence, psychological dependence, health injury, and social function injury.Results: The SDDS revealed a three-factor model structure (weighted root mean square residual (WRMR) = 0.876, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.965, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.953, and Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.070), with good internal consistency (composite reliability = 0.912, alfa = 0.801) and convergent validity. Elevated scores on the SDDS were associated with a higher level of reward sensitivity, punishment sensitivity, and stronger impulsivity. Interestingly, psychological dependence was the only significant predictor (p < 0.05) of criterion variables compared with the other three subscales, implying the important role of psychological factors in synthetic drugs dependence. Adequate measurement equivalence across sex, age (18–30 and 31–57 years old), and employment group (employed and unemployed) was also established.Conclusion: The SDDS appears to be an effective and reliable instrument that could be used to further investigate the characteristics of synthetic and traditional drug dependence, promoting a deeper understanding of the physical and psychological roles in drug dependence.