[Critical review of measures of quality of life in schizophrenia]. / Revue critique des instruments de mesure de la qualité de vie dans la schizophrénie.

UNLABELLED: In order to provide clinicians, researchers, program evaluators and administrators with current information on the assessment of humanistic outcomes of services for schizophrenic patients, a literature review is performed in which references to quality of life (QOL) assessment were made in the context of schizophrenia. Measures are summarized according to purpose, content, psychometric properties. Fifteen QOL instruments are summarized and reflect considerable variability on the relevant criteria: 11 are developed for persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses and used among populations including a major part of schizophrenic patients; 3 are specific QOL measures for schizophrenic patients; 1 is a generic QOL instrument used among psychotic patients. Given that none of these QOL measures has been widely used or accepted as a standard, the choice of a measure must rest on the investigator's particular purpose and needs. CONCLUSION: There is a clear need for a QOL instrument that is specific for schizophrenia, given its high prevalence and chronic nature. The lack of information related to responsiveness of these scales stresses the problems of their inclusion in clinical trials. Scales that have been used in studies of schizophrenia were nearly all developed in the United States and the relevance of their content must be questioned. Rather than relying on the literature or experts to determine those needs that are important to patients with schizophrenia, the content of the instrument should be derived from qualitative interviews with patients who are at different stages of their illness. Moreover, the questionnaire should be self-administered.

Psychometric qualities of the French version of the Heinrichs quality of life rating scale.

The quality of life concept has been increasingly used as a major tool for patient care and clinical investigations. The Heinrichs quality of life scale (QLS) is the quality of life assessment method widely used in schizophrenic patients. The QLS was translated into its French version by J.D. Guelfi according the back-translation method. This version of the validation study included 60 schizophrenic inpatients. The scale possesses acceptable psychometric qualities. The test-retest reliability is good for nearly all items of the scale and for the categories and overall score. The internal consistency alpha-coefficients were 0.9 for the global score and varied between 0.6 and 0.9 according to the category. Factor analysis elicited four factors. Convergent validity is good. Recommendations for future use of the QLS are proposed.