Title: Validity and reliability of Finnish version of WHOQOL-Bref on adult population in Finland

Authors: Eero Siljander; Minna-Liisa Luoma; Satu Meriläinen-Porras

Addresses: Centre for Health and Social Economics (CHESS), National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Mannerheimintie 166, 4.floor, PO Box 30, 00271 Helsinki, Finland ' Functional Capacity Unit (TOKY), National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Mannerheimintie 166, 4.floor, PO Box 30, 00271 Helsinki, Finland ' Functional Capacity Unit (TOKY), National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Mannerheimintie 166, 4.floor, PO Box 30, 00271 Helsinki, Finland

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to determine the WHOQOL-Bref population norms and describe the psychometric properties of the Finnish WHOQOL-Bref in relation to construct validity, discriminatory power and internal consistency in the general population. The data is from the Finnish HYPA survey, which combines telephone and personal visits interviews. Telephone interviews and posted questionnaires and register-based data were used for 18-79 year olds and face to face interviews with register data at age group over 79 years olds. The Cronbachs alpha, confirmatory factor and regression analysis show that the internal consistency and validity of the two general questions, and physical and psychological domain to be sufficient for research and QoL measurement purposes. The internal consistency of the domains in the sample for the physical, psychological, social relationships and environmental domains were 0.83; 0.78; 0.69; 0.67 respectively measured by alpha. The internal consistency for total scale was 0.89 which was near excellent (> 0.90).

Keywords: quality of life; QoL; WHOQOL-Bref; population norms; psychometrics; well-being; socio-economic status; Finland.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHD.2015.067608

International Journal of Happiness and Development, 2015 Vol.2 No.1, pp.52 - 68

Received: 25 Feb 2014
Accepted: 18 Jul 2014
Published online: 22 Apr 2015 *

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