The Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and its modified short version validation in adults and children with allergic rhinitis

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to develop the Greek versions of the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and Mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire for adult and pediatric populations, discuss their differences and detect the impact of age and gender on quality of life questionnaire results. Method Ninety-eight patients with allergic rhinitis participated. Quality of Life evaluation was made by two generic (Short Form-36 and Beck Depression Inventory) and two disease-specific questionnaires (Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and Mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire). Symptom evaluation was made by the Total 5 Symptoms Score assessment. Results Internal consistency and test–retest reliability of both questionnaires was high. Convergent validity showed statistically significant negative correlations of total Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and Mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire with overall Short Form-36 Health Survey score and positive correlations with Beck Depression Inventory and Total 5 Symptoms Score. Discriminative validity demonstrated statistically significant improvement for all instruments and all domains after treatment. Females presented highly significant increased scores. Patient age was positively correlated with total scores of Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and Mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire. The clinically significant improvement after treatment was higher among females than males, while it was independent of patient age. Conclusion Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire and Mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire proved to be valid and reliable methods of assessment of allergic rhinitis-related quality of life in children, adolescents and adults.

The Clinical Significance of Pollen and Fungi Concentrations for Allergic Rhinitis: A Three-Year Study

“…It consists of 28 questions and starts with three patient-specific activity questions. We asked our patients to score their problems during the past week and answer each question on a 7-point scale (6 = severe impairment, 0 = no impairment) [9,10]. As far as the mini-RQLQ is concerned, from the 28 items of the RQLQ, only the highest-scoring items were selected (14 questions).…”

“…As far as the mini-RQLQ is concerned, from the 28 items of the RQLQ, only the highest-scoring items were selected (14 questions). It was also developed to detect the effects of rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms on patients' QoL [10,11]. The SF-36 is a self-reported health assessment questionnaire.…”