Validity and feasibility of the wound‐QoL questionnaire on health‐related quality of life in chronic wounds. Issue 5 (2nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Augustin, Matthias; Conde Montero, Elena; Zander, Nicole; Baade, Katrin; Herberger, Katharina; Debus, E. Sebastian; Diener, Holger; Neubert, Thomas; Blome, Christine
• Is Part Of: Wound repair and regeneration. Volume 25:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 852
• Page End: 857
• Publication Date: 2017-11-02
• Subjects: Wound healing -- Periodicals; Regeneration (Biology) -- Periodicals; 617.14
• DOI: 10.1111/wrr.12583
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1067-1927

Abstract

Abstract: Chronic wounds have a major socioeconomic impact due to their frequency, chronicity, and societal costs. Patients experience substantial quality of life (QoL) impairments. The use of questionnaires for a continuous assessment of QoL and resulting interventions to improve the situation of the individual are an important cornerstone of a guideline‐based wound care. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the Wound‐QoL questionnaire. Patients with chronic wounds from two different centers were included in the prospective study. All patients completed the Wound‐QoL and two other QoL questionnaires (European Quality of Life‐5 Dimensions, EQ‐5D, and Freiburg Life Quality Assessment for wounds, FLQA‐wk) at baseline and at two more time points (4 and 8 weeks, respectively). Wound status was defined with an anchor question. Two hundred and twenty‐seven patients (48.5% women) participated in the study. Mean age was 66.9 years (range 17–96, median 69.5). Indications were venous leg ulcers (40.1%), pyoderma gangraenosum (14.1%), diabetic or ischemic foot ulcers (5.3%), pressure ulcers (2.6%), and other etiologies (30.0%). The Wound‐QoL showed good internal consistency, with high Cronbach's alpha in all the subscales and in the global scale in all time points (>0.8). Convergent validity was satisfactory since there were significantly ( p ≤ 0.001) good correlations with the EQ‐5D (range = 0.5–0.7) and FLQA‐wk global score ( r > 0.8) at every time point. Responsiveness was high, too. The Wound‐QoL is a simple, valid tool for the longitudinal assessment of QoL in patients with chronic wounds. This questionnaire is suitable for use in clinical trials, quality of care studies and clinical routine.