Assessing the quality of life of people with chronic wounds by using the cross-culturally valid and revised Wound-QoL questionnaire

The Wound-QoL is an often used reliable and valid measure, originally developed in Germany. It has been sequentially translated and validated for other languages/countries, for the measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic wounds. However, a study from the United States postulated its benefits from further adaptations. Furthermore, some patients struggled to provide an answer for some of the items. We aimed to test the cross-cultural structure and psychometric performance of the questionnaire to suggest necessary revisions. This cross-sectional analysis of existing data sets included 1185 patients from Germany, the US, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Israel. Patients in the U.S. Wound Registry completed the Wound-QoL during routine care. Different studies comprised the data collection in the other countries. Almost half of the patients were women (48.4%). Furthermore, 42.6% were diagnosed with leg ulcers. Their average age was 66 years. We used a confirmatory factor analysis and an unconstrained graded response model. We revised and shortened the Wound-QoL from 17 to 14 items. In addition, we supported the cross-cultural metric invariance of the revised Wound-QoL questionnaire. The new version with 14 items and three dimensions revealed good psychometric properties with Cronbach's alpha (α) of 0.913 for the total score, and 0.709–0.907 for different dimensions. Furthermore, we provided strict invariance for different clinical variables. In conclusion, the revised Wound-QoL is a reliable and cross-cultural instrument to measure the HRQoL on patients with chronic wounds. Future studies should analyse the revised Wound-QoL for convergent validity with generic HRQoL questionnaires as well as for determining its sensitivity to clinical change.

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