Assessment of the Quality of Life in Parents of Children With ADHD: Validation of the Multicultural Quality of Life Index in Norwegian Pediatric Mental Health Settings

Abstract

Background: The brief generic Multicultural Quality of Life Index (MQLI) is a culturally informed self-report 10-item questionnaire used to measure health-related quality of life (QoL). QoL is an important outcome measure in guiding healthcare and is held as a substantial parameter to evaluate the effectiveness of healthcare. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children might negatively influence the parents’ QoL. Having a validated questionnaire to measure QoL for this population will therefore be a vital first step in guiding healthcare for parents of children with ADHD. We aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Norwegian version of the MQLI in a sample of parents of children with ADHD.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 128 parents of children with ADHD were recruited from four outpatient clinics within the Child and Adolescents Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Norway. They completed the MQLI along with an alternative well-being scale, the Five-item World Health Organization Well-being Index (WHO-5), and a form including demographic variables. Reliability and validity of the MQLI were examined. We conducted a factor analysis and calculated internal consistency and the correlation between the MQLI and the WHO-5.Results: Factor analysis of the parents reported MQLI yielded a one-factor solution. For the MQLI, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.73. The correlation between the two measures of MQLI and WHO-5 was high (r = 0.84), reflecting convergent validity since the association between the two measures was strong.Conclusion: Results from this study support the reliability and validity of the Norwegian version of the MQLI for assessment of quality of life in parents of children with ADHD with good psychometric properties. Study findings support the use of the questionnaire in CAMHS.

Psychometric Properties of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index among Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Three Countries

“…The MQLI is a self-administered questionnaire. The items evaluated their physical well-being, psychological/emotional well-being and overall QoL on a 10-point line [ 27 , 33 ]. Responses to these three questions were scored from 0 (representing ‘poor’) to 10 (indicating ‘excellent’) by placing a mark on the value representing their experiences.…”

“…Responses to these three questions were scored from 0 (representing ‘poor’) to 10 (indicating ‘excellent’) by placing a mark on the value representing their experiences. The reliability and validity of the MQLI were established in the original validation study (Cronbach’s alpha 0.92) and in the Norwegian validation study (Cronbach’s alpha 0.73) [ 27 , 33 ]; however, investigations about the validity and reliability of the MQLI-3 items have not been conducted among nurses.…”

“…First, it was hypothesised that the WHO-5 would have good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding 0.75. Second, as previous research has suggested that subjective well-being is part of the concept of perceived QoL [ 27 ], we also expected a priori that the WHO-5 would show high and strong correlations with questions about QoL. As validation studies in recent years have suggested that psychological problems affect subjective well-being [ 28 , 29 ], we also expected that core anxiety symptoms would have a negative association with the WHO-5 and that the WHO-5 would be negatively associated with core symptoms of depression.…”

Family and Individual Quality of Life in Parents of Children with Developmental Disorders and Diabetes Type 1

“…Lastly, studies on the association between self-esteem, optimism, anxiety and depression, and the family QOL in parents of children with chronic conditions are scarce in the literature. Self-esteem has been reported to have a mediating role for the QOL perception, and studies confirmed association between optimism, depression, anxiety and self-esteem [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. However, these characteristics in parents of children with DS, ASD, CP, and DMT1, and their association with family QOL are not represented in the literature.…”

Multicultural Quality of Life Index in Relatives of People With Borderline Personality Disorder

“…As we can see in the aforementioned studies, the MQLI has been validated in different samples and settings, but research on its psychometric characteristics in relatives of people with mental disorders is scarce. The only published validation of the MQLI in a sample of relatives was carried out by Mundal et al (21) with a sample of 128 relatives of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They obtained good reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.73.…”