Chronic Heart Failure Integrative Medicine Quality Of Life Scale And The Sf-36 Scale Comparative Evaluation Study

Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is the ultimate phase of cardiovascular diseases. With the continuously deepening and development of the research in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), HRQOL has been an important index of evaluating the practical treatment of CHF. Many researches have shown that the quality of life of CHF patients is very poor; the Chinese medicine has unique advantage in improving the quality life of CHF patients. The Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine is the disease-specific scale which reflects the characteristics of Chinese Medicine. According to the internationally-acknowledged principles and procedures, the scale which added some Chinese featured items of CHF to MLHFQ was formulated.Research Objective:To compare the effects of the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine and the 36-item short-form health status survey (SF-36) in Chinese patients with chronic heart failure ,to evaluate the capability of the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine.Research Methods:We conducted a cross-section survey of 63 participants who diagnosised definitely with chronic heart failure in 5 hospitals in Beijing from February, 2008 to April, 2008. It was performed using a test-retest design with to fill in the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine and the 36-item short-form health status survey. Scale's capability was measured by its reliability, validity, feasibility and responsibility.Research Result:(1)Scale's feasibility:Average time of accomplished SF-36 was 10.9士4.6 minites.Average time of accomplished the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine was 12.0士4.9 minites. Both of the scales' accomplished rates were 96.83%.(2) Scale's reliability:Cronbach's alpha coefficient of SF-36 was 0.896. Split-half reliability coefficient of it was 0.903. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine was 0.951,Split-half reliability coefficient of it was 0.960,its reliability was better than SF-36.(3) Scale's validity.Both of the two scales were good on content validity. The surveyed results were true of the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine ' structure conceived by designers in study by means of factor analysis. Correlative coefficient of the Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine with SF-36 was 0.79,p<0.01.(4) Scale's responsibility:Both scales were good on responsibility(p<0.01).Research Conclusions:The Chronic Heart Failure Quality of Life scale of Chinese and Western Integrated Medicine is good on reliability, validity and feasibility , The scale can be used for measuring the quality of life for chronic heart failure.