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Published on: August 17, 2022
Reliability and validity of a new living liver donor quality of life scale
Yuki Morooka1, Koji Umeshita, Akinobu Taketomi
1Division of Health Science, Osaka University, 1-7 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan. laneige@sahs.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
Purpose:
To develop a living liver donor (LLD) quality of life (QOL) scale and test its reliability and validity.
Methods:
We sent a draft questionnaire comprising 38 questions to 965 LLDs from five hospitals. To evaluate test-retest reliability, the questionnaire was re-sent 2 weeks later to some of the donors from one hospital.
Results:
Of the 447 (54.5 %) donors who responded, 15 were excluded. Factor analysis of 26 items extracted 7 subscales; namely, damage from the operation, scarring, satisfaction, burden, after-effects, digestive symptoms, and lack of understanding of donor health. We analyzed construct validity on the basis of factor analysis and observed significant correlations among the seven subscales. Criterion-related validity was confirmed by significant correlation with the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey scores. None of the subscales showed unreasonable values. We evaluated the subscale reliability for internal consistency (α = 0.670-0.868, except for "digestive symptoms", α = 0.431) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.749-0.918). The factor "digestive symptoms" needs careful consideration because of low internal consistency.
Conclusion:
The findings of this study confirmed the reliability and validity of the LLD QOL scale, which can be used for quantitatively evaluating the QOL of LLDs.
