The Psychometric Properties for the VISIONS QL Brief

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Psychology
• Rehabilitation Science
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Children with visual impairments (VI) exhibit diminished Quality of Life (QoL), increased sedentary behavior, and lower motor competence compared to sighted peers.
• Existing international QoL instruments for children with VI lack validation for U.S. pediatric populations.
• Addressing these disparities is crucial for the health, well-being, and psychosocial development of children with VI.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the VISIONS QL assessment tool for children and youth with VI.
• To reduce items in the VISIONS QL instrument, creating a more streamlined and accessible version.
• To validate the psychometric properties of the VISIONS QL Brief for U.S. pediatric populations.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional, descriptive analytic design with convenience sampling.
• Participants included 148 children and youth with VI, aged 9-19 years.
• Principal Components Analysis (PCA) with orthogonal varimax rotation was employed for dimensionality reduction.

Main Results:

• PCA identified three components explaining 46% of the variance: Educational Opportunities (7 items), Social and Familial Implications (8 items), and Communication (5 items).
• The VISIONS QL Brief demonstrated high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.857; Ω = 0.858) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.89).
• Strong concurrent validity was found between the original 63-item version and the 20-item brief scale (r = 0.92, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

• The findings confirm the multidimensional nature of QoL in children with VI.
• The VISIONS QL Brief is a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing QoL in this population.
• The brief version is particularly useful in settings where time, accessibility, and cognitive load are significant considerations.