Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To translate the Dementia quality of life instrument (DQoL) into German and assess its construct and concurrent validity in community-dwelling people with mild to moderate dementia.
METHODS: Dementia quality of life instrument data of two pooled samples (n=287) were analysed regarding ceiling and floor effects, internal consistency, factor reliability and correlations with corresponding scales on quality of life (Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease and SF-12), cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - cognitive), depression (Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia) and activities of daily living (Interview of Deterioration in Daily Living Activities in Dementia).
RESULTS: We found no floor effects (<2%), minor ceiling effects (1-11%), moderate to good internal consistency (Cronbach's α: 0.6-0.8) and factor reliability (0.6-0.8), moderate correlations with self-rated scales of quality of life (Spearman coefficient: 0.3-0.6) and no or minor correlations with scores for cognition, depression or activities of daily living (r<0.3). The original five-factor model could not be confirmed.
CONCLUSION: The DQoL can be used in dementia research for assessing positive and negative affect, feelings of belonging and self-esteem. The findings suggest further research to improve the structure of the scales aesthetics, feelings of belonging and self-esteem.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 376-384 |
Journal | European Journal of Neurology |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |