Affiliations: Universitätsklinik Genf, Zentrum für
Neuroge-rontopsychologie, Psychogeriatrie | Universität Genf, Fakultät für
Psychologie und Erziehungswissenschaften | Universitätsklinikum Göttingen, Abteilung
für Medizinische Psychologie. | Universität Leipzig, Klinik und Poliklinik
für Psychiatrie | Die Repräsentanten/innen der WHOQOL-OLD Group
finden sich am Ende des Artikels
Note: [] Korrespondenzadresse: Prof. Dr. rer. biol. hum. Nicole von
Steinbüchel, Abteilung für Medizinische Psychologie,
Universitätsklinikum Göttingen, Waldweg 37, 37073 Göttingen.
E-mail: medpsych@gwdg.de.
Abstract: Assessing elderly persons' health-related quality of life with the
WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire In the last years the evaluation of subjective, health-related
quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly integrated as an outcome criterion in
the health system. Especially in gerontology there is however still great need
for validated instruments assessing HRQOL and comprehensive generic quality of
life (QOL), including for example also environmental aspects. To measure
generic QOL under the patronage of the World Health Organisation, the WHOQOL
Group developed the WHOQOL-BREF, a generic QOL instrument with 26 items,
attributed to four subscales (psychological well-being, physical well-being,
social relations and environment). First results using the swiss/french version
of the WHOQOL-BREF in older swiss french speaking individuals (N = 178, mean
age 74 years) are presented. Its psychometric properties were adequate and are comparably to
those found in an older german group (N = 354, mean age 73; Matschinger et al.
in preparation). For the two samples, the original four-factor structure was
not easily reproducible. Nevertheless this structure was kept as in other
publications (Leplège et al., 2000; Skevington, Lotfy & O'Connel,
2004). Unlike as in other studies no link was found between
socio-demographic variables and QOL. The correlation between the number of
health problems and depression on the one hand and QOL on the other hand was
negative, as expected. However age moderated the relation between health
problems and QOL: in older age, the negative effect of health problems on QOL
was less pronounced.
Keywords: Generic quality of life, old age, intercultural questionnaire development, WHOQOL-BREF
