Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia (Jun 2013)

Comparison of two assessment instruments of quality of life in older adults

  • Camila Mello dos Santos,
  • Fernando Neves Hugo,
  • Andréa Fachel Leal,
  • Juliana Balbinot Hilgert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/s1415-790x2013000200009
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 2
pp. 328 – 337

Abstract

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Objective: To investigate if there is convergent validity between the dimensions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Brief Version (WHOQOL-Bref) and the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) questionnaire. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 872 elderly Southern-Brazilians was evaluated. Questionnaires assessing socio-demographic data and quality of life in general (WHOQOL-Bref) and oral health-related quality of life (OHIP-14) were used. Analysis of the WHOQOL-Bref and OHIP-14 questionnaires used descriptive statistics. The dimensions of the WHOQOL-Bref and OHIP-14 questionnaires were correlated by affinity. The convergence between WHOQOL-Bref and OHIP-14 dimensions was analyzed by Spearman’s correlation coefficients. Results: The social relations dimension of the WHOQOL-Bref presented the greatest mean (18.24 ± 2.30). The physical pain dimension of the OHIP-14 presented a median of 1.0 (0.0 – 3.0). All correlations between the WHOQOL-Bref and OHIP-14 dimensions were significant, negative and associated with a low magnitude. The correlation between WHOQOL-physical and OHIP-functional limitation, OHIP-physical pain, OHIP-physical disability and OHIP-handicap were – 0.164, – 0.262, – 0.196 and – 0.125 respectively. WHOQOL-psychological was associated with OHIP-psychological discomfort and OHIP-psychological disability, and WHOQOL-social showed an association with OHIP-social disability. Conclusions: All correlations analyzed had a positive association of low magnitude. Despite the fact that the WHOQOL-Bref and OHIP-14 instruments have related dimensions, they measure physical, psychological and social relations differently.

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