A short measure of quality of life in older age: The performance of the brief Older People's Quality of Life questionnaire (OPQOL-brief)

Abstract

Promoting quality of life in older age is an internationally recognised priority, requiring valid measurement. We present a short version of the established Older People's Quality of Life questionnaire (OPQOL-brief). The full OPQOL-35 was original in being developed from the perspectives of older people, assessed conceptually, and validated with a population sample using gold-standard psychometric assessment. The OPQOL-brief was also developed by asking older people to prioritise the most important items from the OPQOL-35, next assessed psychometrically with a population sample, and also statistically against the discarded 22 items. The aim was to assess the properties of the short, 13-item version of the OPQOL (OPQOL-brief), and to compare the performance of included and discarded items. The method was a national population survey of people aged 65+ living at home. The psychometric rigour of the OPQOL-brief was tested through assessments of reliability, validity and factor structure. The measures were OPQOL-brief, WHOQOL-QOL and CASP-19.The OPQOL-brief was found to be a highly reliable and valid, short measure of quality of life in older age. The OPQOL-brief is of value in assessment of interventions where a rigorously tested, short measure is required. The grounded development of the instrument is consistent with international policy emphasis on user involvement in shaping policy and research. Dear EditorWe would be grateful if you would consider our paper for publication online in AGG.We regard it as an important contribution to research in geriatrics and in gerontology as it provides the information on the properties of a short quality of life measures, developed bottom-up with older people.The longer version has been published and is used internationally (Bowling 2009;Bowling and Stenner 2011). A short, robust, relevant measure of older people's quality of life has long been needed in evaluative research.We look forward to hearing from you in due course. Yours, Prof Ann BowlingCover Letter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 3 AbstractPromoting quality of life in older age is an internationally recognised priority, requiring valid measurement. We present a short version of the established Older People"s Quality of Life questionnaire (OPQOL-brief). The full OPQOL-35 was original in being developed from t...

Psychometric properties the Iranian version of Older People’s Quality Of Life questionnaire (OPQOL)

“…The total score range from 35 (worst possible QOL) to 175 (best possible QOL). The full OPQOL questionnaire cover: life overall (4 items, score range 4–20), health (4 items, score range 4–20), social relationships and participation (8 items, score range 8–40), independence, control over life and freedom (5 items, score range 5–25), home and neighborhood (4 items, score range 4–20), psychological and emotional well-being (4 items, score range 4–20), financial circumstances (4 items, score range 4–20), culture and religion (2 items, score range 2–10) [5]. …”

“…Also recent reports predicted that within 10 years, the elderly population over 65 years will increase from 7 to 14% by 2040 [3]. The aging of population is often considered as a global public health success, although at the same time it is widely acknowledged as a public health challenge in high-income countries [4, 5]. According to the 2011 census the population of elderly people accounted for 8.2% in Iran.…”

“…Also predicted that this rate will increase to 22% in 2046 [6, 7]. Thus, it is argued that if aging is a challenge for developed countries, therefore in the lower and middle-income countries such as Iran it is a more significant challenge [4, 5]. …”

The Going to Stay at Home program: combining dementia caregiver training and residential respite care

“…Secondary outcomes were residential care placement at 12 months; caregiver burden (Zarit Burden Interview, short version) (Zarit et al, 1980;Bédard et al, 2001); caregiver quality of life (Older People's Quality of Life Questionnaire -Brief [OPQoL-Brief]) (Bowling et al, 2013); caregiver health status (Short Form Health Survey, SF-12) (Ware et al, 1996); the number of caregiver needs met from an 11-item self-report needs scale (Harrison et al, 2014), and resource utilization (Resource Utilization in Dementia Lite [RUDLite]) (Wimo and Winblad, 2003). Outcomes to be measured related to the person with dementia were instrumental and basic activities of daily living (informant rated IADL and Physical Self Maintenance Scales) (Lawton and Brody, 1969); quality of life (proxy rated Quality Of Life -AD) (Logsdon et al, 1999;; neuropsychiatric symptoms (Neuropsychiatric Inventory [NPI]) (Cummings et al, 1994); agitation (CohenMansfield Agitation Inventory [CMAI]) (CohenMansfield et al, 1995); and severity of dementia (Global Deterioration Scale [GDS]) (Reisberg et al, 1982).…”

The development and validation of the Dementia Quality of Life Scale for Older Family Carers (DQoL-OC)

“…Comparison between the psychometric properties of the DQoL-OC and other scales developed for use with the general older population indeed suggests that the reliability scores of the DQoL-OC are higher than the other measures of QoL for use with the general population of older people (Bowling, Hankins, Windle, Bilotta, & Grant, 2013;Caballero et al, 2013;Hyde et al, 2003;The WHOQOL-OLD Group, 2011;The WHOQoL Group, 2005). Even though it was not possible to measure responsiveness to change within this study, the excellent reliability scores for internal consistency and test-re-test reliability suggest that the DQoL-OC is likely to be responsive to changes in QoL in future tests.…”