Development and validation of the Nottingham Leisure Questionnaire (NLQ)

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychometrics
• Stroke Recovery Research

Background:

• The original Nottingham Leisure Questionnaire (NLQ) required modification for efficient postal administration.
• Assessing leisure activities is crucial for understanding quality of life and recovery post-stroke.

Purpose of the Study:

• To shorten the NLQ for postal use.
• To evaluate the test-retest reliability, sensitivity, stability, and validity of the modified NLQ.
• To assess the NLQ's correlation with other measures of activities of daily living (ADL), mood, and handicap.

Main Methods:

• The NLQ was reduced from 37 to 30 items with response categories collapsed.
• Test-retest reliability was assessed on stroke patients from the Nottingham stroke register.
• The revised NLQ and other measures were administered to patients in a multicentre rehabilitation trial (TOTAL).

Main Results:

• The modified NLQ demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability (kappa values indicating good to excellent agreement for most items).
• Reanalysis of previous data confirmed that significant group differences were maintained.
• Higher NLQ scores correlated with better performance on the Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale (NEADL) and better emotional health.

Conclusions:

• The modified NLQ is suitable for postal self-administration.
• The shortened NLQ retains its psychometric properties and utility in assessing leisure activities in stroke patients.
• Further refinements to the NLQ may enhance its application in clinical and research settings.