The multicultural quality of life index: presentation and validation
Abstract
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Quality of life has emerged as a crucial concept for the assessment of health and the planning of health care. Desirable features for the evaluation of quality of life include comprehensiveness, self-ratedness, cultural sensitivity, practicality and psychometric soundness. An attempt to meet these challenges led to the development of a brief multicultural quality of life instrument and to the appraisal of its applicability, reliability and validity. METHODS: The development of the proposed assessment instrument was based on a wide review of the literature and the engagement of a multicultural mental health scholarly team. Its validation was conducted on samples of psychiatric patients (n = 124) and hospital professionals (n = 53) in New York City. RESULTS: A new generic culture-informed and self-rate instrument, the Multicultural Quality of Life Index, has been developed. Its 10 items cover key aspects of the concept, from physical well-being to spiritual fulfilment. Concerning its applicability, mean time for completion was less than 3 minutes and 96% of raters found it easy to use. Test-retest reliability was high (r = 0.87). A Cronbach's α of 0.92 documented its internal consistency and a factor analysis revealed a strong structure. With regard to discriminant validity, a highly significant difference was found between the mean total scores of professionals (x = 8.41) and patients (x = 6.34) presumed to have different levels of quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The Multicultural Quality of Life Index is a brief and culturally informed instrument that appears to be easy to complete, reliable, internally consistent and valid.
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The QLI has good internal consistency (α =0.89) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.87).
“The psychometric properties are good for both internal consistency (α =0.89) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.87).”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [44]
The QLI has shown excellent internal consistency (between 0.90 and 0.92), test-retest reliability (0.87), and discriminant validity.
“The QLI has shown excellent internal consistency (between 0.90 and 0.92), test-retest reliability (0.87), and discriminant validity.”
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“Quality of Life Index-Spanish Version [QLI (44, 45)].”
- Authors
- Mezzich, J. E., Cohen, N. L., Ruiperez, M. A., Banzato, C. E. M., & Zapata‐Vega, M. I.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- City University of New York (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mezzich, Juan E.
- Venue
- Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-01-05
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 357-364
- ISSN
- 1356-1294 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2753
- OpenAlex
- W1529821516
- Cited by
- 92
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Social Sciences › Education › Health Education and Validation
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- quality of life, cultural sensitivity, subjective quality of life, instrument validation, psychiatric patients, hospital staff, psychometric properties, spiritual well-being, physical well-being
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, New York City, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Cultural Competency
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