Validation of the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QoL) in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage
- 1 Rehabilitation Center De Hoogstraat, Utrecht, Netherlands;
- 2 Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands;
- 3 Department of Neurology University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands
- Correspondence to: Marcel W Post, Research, Rehabiliation Centre De Hoogstraat, Rembrandtkade 10, Utrecht, 3583 TM, Netherlands; m.post{at}dehoogstraat.nl
- Received 1 June 2009
- Accepted 8 August 2009
- Published Online First 13 October 2009
Abstract
Background and purpose: Disease-specific quality of life measures have been validated for patients with ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage, but not for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). We aimed to validate the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QoL) for patients with SAH.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 141 aneurysmal SAH-patients. We studied construct and criterion validity and explored various ways to merge the 12 SS-QoL domains into a limited number of subtotal scores. Statistics included assessing score distributions, Cronbach's alpha, Principal Components Analysis (PCA), and Spearman correlations between SS-QoL and the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), Life Satisfaction-9 (LiSat-9) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).
Results: PCA revealed 2 components reflecting physical health and psychosocial health with a mutual correlation of 0.73. A ceiling effect was present for 10 out of 12 domains and for the physical component. Internal consistency was good for all 12 domains (α≥.80), two components (α≥.95) and the total score (0.97). Physical SS-QoL scores showed weak to moderate correlations (.24 - .32) with the GOS. All SS-QoL scores showed moderate to strong correlations (.35 -.72) with the CFQ, LiSat-9 and HADS.
Conclusions: The SS-QoL is a valid measure to assess quality of life in patients after aneurysmal SAH. Using physical and psychosocial SS-QoL summary scores simplifies the use of this measure without concealing differences in outcomes on different quality of life domains.
