Introduction: Past decade witnessed a growing interest in scientific medical publications on health related quality of life (HRQoL), which has yielded an increasing number of generic and disease-specific instruments. To date, several studies have evaluated the impact of GERD on HRQoL.
Aims: To develop a QoL questionnaire for patients with GERD underwent laparoscopic fundoplication (LF). This questionnaire was developed to be more comprehensive than existing measures.
Materials and methods: We undertook a retrospective analysis of 116 patients underwent laparoscopic fundoplication for GERD between 1994 and 2002 in the 1st Department of Surgery, Semmelweis University. These patients--included 55 men and 61 women, with mean age of 46 years (14-77)--were used in the psychometric evaluation. Our questionnaire was developed using internationally accepted, valid QoL instruments and scales.
Results: Internal-consistency reliability was high (alpha value overall 0.95; dimensions 0.74-0.96). Using convergent and divergent validity, construct validity was evaluated by examining Pearson correlation coefficients between items and scales. Construct validity was demonstrated based on observed correlations. Known-groups validity of questionnaire is proved to.
Conclusions: Our questionnaire is a short and user-friendly instrument. It has excellent reliability, construct and known-groups validity.