Ķazaķstannyṇ Klinikalyķ Medicinasy (Oct 2021)

Validation of the Kazakh-language version of the World Health Organization's WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire on the quality of life among the elderly population of Aktobe city

  • Nurgul Abenova,
  • Akbayan Imanbayeva,
  • Bibigul Karimsakova,
  • Inkara Essengalyeva

DOI
https://doi.org/10.23950/jcmk/11224
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 5
pp. 35 – 43

Abstract

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Introduction. In Kazakhstan, as the phenomenon of population aging becomes more and more relevant, an increasing number of researchers in the field of medicine are studying health-related problems that arise at this age. During these studies, many scientists are wondering: how to accurately measure the quality of life of older people? In our country, the most used tools for conducting this assessment are the SF-36 questionnaire, while the widely used worldwide tools WHOQOL-100 and its short version WHOQOL-BREF are rarely evaluated and used in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Kazakh-language version of the World Health Organization's Short Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) in a pilot study. Material and methods. The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was subjected to translation procedures according to the instructions of WHOQOL (WHO) and a pilot study was conducted in a group of elderly respondents (>60 years old) living in the city of Aktobe. The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire consists of 26 questions, which are divided into 4 areas (physical health, emotional health, social factors, environment). The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was evaluated with the determination of the Alpha-Cronbach's index, as well as the assessment of the intra-class correlation (ICC). The statistical significance was set at 0.05. The software package SPSS v. 10.0 was used for the analysis. Results. The average age of the participants was 67.3±5.03 years, and the overall WHOQOL-BREF score was 76.02 ±11.86. Overall, 60% of the participants were women. The alpha values for each of the spheres and the overall index (> 0.70) and the overall correlation of the elements were satisfactory. The confirmatory analysis of the intra-class correlation showed high ICC values (more than 0.74) for each of the spheres. Conclusion. The psychometric properties of the Kazakh version of WHOQOL-BREF were acceptable.

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