Validation of the 'Vienna List' as a proxy measure of quality of life for geriatric rehabilitation patients

The reason for the study was to investigate the discriminative, content- and criterion-related validity of the 'Vienna List', a newly developed proxy-rating measurement for quality of life in very old and severely demented persons. The total population of patients of a geriatric rehabilitation clinic of one year (from November 2001 to October 2002; n = 687) was evaluated at admission and discharge by means of this proxy rating method together with the mini mental state examination, the timed up and go test, the Tinetti measure, the Barthel Index, and the Katz activities of daily living list. Differences, mainly on factors communication, mobility, aggression, and negative affect, appeared between seven diagnostic groups as well between several care-related categories and destination after discharge. The five factors of the measurement explained a significant amount of variance with a high specificity and more than 50% of the Barthel Index scores. The 'Vienna List', originally developed for the assessment of quality of life in severely demented patients, proved to be a useful, differentiating, less time-consuming and practical tool for the documentation of the outcome of geriatric inpatient rehabilitation, as well.