| To test reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE-31) by applying this scale in a survey to assess the quality of life in Chinese adults with epilepsy so as to work out a reliable and valid scale for Chinese epileptics. Subjects:A preliminary survey was carried out among 25 outpatients or inpatients randomly chosen at Zhujiang Hospital, the Second Affiliated Hospital of the First Military Medical University, from October 10 to November 20, 2001. The formal survey was carried out among a random sample of 398 epileptics, men and women, aged 18-60, from the outpatient and inpatient departments of Zhujiang Hospital from December 2001 to February 2003. Methods:Qualified adult epileptics (with firm diagnosis of epilepsy and seizures in 6 months, and without other illness) were chosen through on-the-spot or correspondence questionnaire. After given the scale and directions, they were asked to fill up the Chinese version of QOLIE-31. One month after they filled up the first scale, they were asked to complete the same questionnaire again and mail it back to the investigator. The data collected were evaluated according to the scoring criteria provided by Professor Cramer. The higher the scores, the higher the quality of life. All the data were analyzed with the statistic software SPSS 10.0 for social sciences. The reliability of retest was evaluated with Pearson's correlation coefficients and Paired-Samples T Test; the reliability of internal consistency was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha coefficients; the reliability of different dimensions was evaluated with Pearson's correlation coefficients; the structure validity was evaluated withfactor analysis; double sample test was done with Independent Samples T Test to test whether there would be significant total divided difference between two independent samples; and One-way ANOVA analysis was used to make comparisons of divided difference between multiple samples and comparisons between the divided differences within a sample. Results:The response rates of outpatients and inpatients were 62.31% and 53.85% respectively. The analysis of retest reliability showed that the retest scores were significantly correlated with the initial test scores, with Pearson's correlation coefficients ranging from 0.865 to 0.966 (PO.0001). The internal consistency analysis showed that the Pearson's correlation coefficient for the complete 33-item questionnaire was 0.94, demonstrating high internal reliability of the scale. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for all items ranged from 0.58 to 0.88, indicating high validity of the scale. The correlation analysis between each item and its corresponding living situation indicated that the scale had very high discrimination validity and structure validity because each item was highly correlated with the living situation it belonged to and that the correlation between each living situation and the total score was greater than the correlation between different living situations. Moreover, we also compared our findings from the survey with those from other similar surveys conducted by foreign medical scientists overseas. The results showed that the Chinese epileptics usually scored lower but demonstrated a similar tendency compared with epileptics in America and other countries (P <0.05), there existed no significant difference in the quality of life between different sexes (P>0.05), there existed a significant difference in the impact of marriage on fear of seizure, total quality of life, emotional happiness, energy and fatigue, as well as on cultural adaptation (P<0.05), there existed a significant difference in fear of seizure and medication between different financial conditions (P<0.05), and there existed a significant difference in social activities between people with different educational background (P<0.05).Conclusion:It has been proved by our survey that the Chinese version of QOLIE-31, an accomplishment of translation and adaptation in our project, is suitable and helpful... |
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