TY - JOUR
PY - 2019//
TI - Development and validation of a revised trauma-specific quality of life (RT-QoL) instrument
JO - Journal of trauma and acute care surgery
A1 - Herrera-Escobar, Juan Pablo
A1 - Deroon-Cassini, Terri
A1 - Brasel, Karen J.
A1 - Nehra, Deepika
A1 - Al Rafai, Syeda Sanam
A1 - Toppo, Alexander
A1 - Kasotakis, George
A1 - Velmahos, George
A1 - Salim, Ali
A1 - Haider, Adil Hussain
SP - ePub
EP - ePub
VL - ePub
IS - ePub
N2 - BACKGROUND: The National Academies of Science has called for routine collection of long-term outcomes after injury. One of the main barriers for this is the lack of practical trauma-specific tools to collect such outcomes. The only trauma-specific long-term outcomes measure that applies a biopsychosocial view of patient care, the Trauma Quality-of-Life (T-QoL), has not been adopted due to its length, lack of composite scores, and unknown validity. Our objective was to develop a shorter version of the T-QoL measure that is reliable, valid, specific, and generalizable to all trauma populations.
METHODS: We used two random samples selected from a prospective registry developed to follow long-term outcomes of adult trauma survivors (Injury Severity Score ≥9) admitted to three Level-I trauma centers. First, we validated the original T-QoL instrument using the SF-12 and Breslau PTSD-screening (B-PTSD) tools. Second, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to reduce the length of the original T-QoL instrument; and using a different sample, we scored and performed internal consistency and validity assessments of the revised T-QoL (RT-QoL) components.
RESULTS: All components of the original T-QoL were significantly correlated negatively with the B-PTSD and positively with the SF-12 mental and physical composite scores. After CFA, a three-component structure using 18-items (6-items/component) most appropriately represented the data. Each component in the revised instrument demonstrated a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥0.8) and correlated negatively with the B-PTSD and positively with the SF-12, demonstrating concurrent validity. Additionally, each of the RT-QoL components were able to distinguish between individuals based on their work status, with those who have returned to work reporting better health.
CONCLUSIONS: This more practical RT-QoL measure greatly increases the ability to evaluate long-term outcomes in trauma more efficiently and meaningfully, without sacrificing the validity and psychometric properties of the original instrument. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III - Prognostic and Epidemiological.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2163-0755 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TA.0000000000002505 ID - ref1 ER -