Construction of evaluation index system and development of quality of life scale for liver and kidney transplant recipients / 中华器官移植杂志

Objective To Establish an evaluation system of the quality of life for Chinese liver and kidney transplant recipients,and develop a specialized scale to measure the quality of life (QOL)for such recipients preliminarily.Methods By combining subjective and objective methods,this study determined the evaluation system and created items of QOL scale based on literature analysis,Delphi method (expert consultation),interviews,and experience of researchers.Then,a nationwide clinical survey was conducted on 5 Level Ⅲ Class A hospitals.454 valid questionnaires were collected,including 153 from liver recipients,and 301 from kidney recipients.Subjective statistical methods such as critical Ratio method,correlation coefficient method,dispersion tendency method,and exploratory factor analysis were used for selection of questionnaire items.Results The study established an evaluation system of QOL for liver and kidney transplant recipients,including 4 primary indexes and 12 secondary indexes,and developed QOL scales that were appropriate for liver and kidney transplant recipients respectively.Conclusions The structure of QOL scale for liver and kidney transplant recipients was basically consistent with theoretical assumption.The QOL scale for patients showed good reliability and validity,therefore,it can fully reflect the quality of their life.

Pretest survey on the Chinese menopause rating scale / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To select the items from the Chinese menopause rating scale(CMRS)through pre-tcsting those people with menopausal syndromes.Methods 293 people were surveyed in Guangzhou in 2005.among which 196 people with menopausal syndromes and others without.Psychometrics methods were employed to develop the scale.The item pools were all round.Methods used would include:focus group discussion and interviews,subjective evaluation method and Delphi method,to preliminarily screen the items.Data on scales measured from 196 cases with and 97 subjects without menopausal syndromes during the menopausal period,were collected.Again,seven statistical methods were employed to select the items.Results The 40-items scale for menopausal syndrome was formed to include:a)three domains:somatic(18-items),psychological(14-items)and social(5-items);b)one general appraisaIitem:c)two lie-test iterns.Conclusion The Chinese menopausal syndrome scale we used seemed to possess good content validity.feasibility and intra-class reliability.

Exploration on methodology of item selection of TCM syndrome scale / 中华中医药杂志

Objective: To explore the feasible methods for item selection of TCM syndrome scale.Methods:Elderly hypertension with syndrome of kidney qi deficiency was selected as example.The symptoms and signs of elderly hypertension patients were statistically analyzed with clinical epidemiological investigation on the basis of discussion among focus group and expert consultation.Six selection methods were used,such as correlation coefficient method,dispersion tendency method,factor analysis method,etc.Results:18 Items were selected in the end and constituted the preliminary scale of kidney qi deficiency of elderly hypertension.Conclusion:Only if combine subjective and objective selection methods,use kinds of proper statistical methods and master the scale of preserving items,can we acquire good reliability and validity of scale.

Item Selection in Development of WHOQOL-OLD / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective: Selecting items from item pool for the development of WHOQOL-OLD by six statistical methods. Testing the function of Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability method for item selection.Methods:Collecting data by the means of multistage sampling, two new methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability were employed to select items in view of internal consistency and stability in addition to the commonly used methods such as methods of dispersion and correlation coefficient. Results: Items selected by different methods were remained to constitute the old module of WHOQOL; items with high internal consistency or high stability were selected by methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability. Conclusion: The four commonly used methods select items from aspects of representation, independence and discrimination, while methods based on Cronbach ? and test-retest reliability select the items in view of internal consistency and stability. The two new methods are recommended together with the conventional methods in item selection.