Quality of Life Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Relationships to Healthy Behavioral Patterns

• Published in: The open psychology journal 2009-01, Vol.2 (1), p.49-56
• Main Authors: Boixadós, Mercè, Pousada, Modesta, Bueno, Javier, Valiente, Lourdes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Calidad de vida; Encuestas; Healthy behavior profile; Internet user; Psychometric properties; Qualitat de vida; Quality of life; Quality of life Questionnaire; Questionnaires; Qüestionaris
• ISSN: 1874-3501; 1874-3501
• DOI: 10.2174/1874350100902010049

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of life in a healthy population from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) using the "Quality of life Questionnaire" (QoLQ), which was developed in our cultural context and to examine its psychometric properties. A secondary goal is to explore the relationship between quality of life perception and healthy behavior profiles. Data were obtained from 264 participants with access to the online Campus who answered a web version of the questionnaire (QoLQ). Our results indicate that the psychometric properties of the instrument are satisfactory and the original factorial structure is confirmed: Social Support, General Satisfaction, Physical/Psychological well-being and Absence of work overload/Free time. The Cronbachs alpha coefficients for internal consistency ranged from 0.82 to 0.89 for the subscales and was 0.93 for the total items. A new variable called healthy behavioral pattern was generated from the answers of a chronogram of daily activities. The statistical significant differences (95% CI and t-values) across more healthy and less healthy behavior profiles reveal that the former perceive a higher quality of life.