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Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with heart failure: a systematic, standardized comparison of available measures

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Abstract

To systematically evaluate available health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments for use in patients with heart failure (HF). Seven HF-specific HRQL questionnaires and associated studies of their metric properties were identified by systematic review: the Chronic Heart Failure Assessment Tool, the Cardiac Health Profile congestive heart failure, the Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire (CHFQ), the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), the Left Ventricular Disease Questionnaire (LVDQ), the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), and the Quality of Life in Severe Heart Failure Questionnaire. Each instrument was assessed by four experts using a standardized tool for evaluating patient-reported outcomes (EMPRO; scores from 0 to 100). Four questionnaires were given adequate scores (median >50) for the attribute “conceptual model.” The LVDQ had the highest rated median for “reliability” (72.8). The CHFQ, the KCCQ, and the MLHFQ all got reasonable scores for “validity” (from 54.4 to 76.4). The reviewers rated the KCCQ the highest in terms of “sensitivity to change” (median 94.4). Only the CHFQ (50.0) and the KCCQ (72.2) received adequate scores for the “interpretability” attribute. The most highly rated instruments based on the overall EMPRO score were the KCCQ (64.4) and the MLHFQ (60.7), followed by the CHFQ (59.2). Based on the first systematic and reliable expert-based evaluation of available HF-specific HRQL questionnaires, the evidence seems to support the choice of the KCCQ, the MLHFQ, and the CHFQ over the others, which require further research on metric properties.

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Acknowledgments

We would especially like to thank Dave McFarlane for his assistance in managing our initial databases, and Àngels Pont and Áurea Martín-Morris for their help in editing the last draft of this manuscript. This work was supported by a Grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER, (PI06/90483) and Recercaixa (2010ACUP 00158).

Conflict of interest

O.Garin, M.Herdman, G.Vilagut, M.Ferrer, A.Ribera, L.Rajmil, JM.Valderas, F.Guillemin, D.Revicki, J.Alonso, and all other members from the EMPRO-HF Group have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIBER en Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Olatz Garin, Gemma Vilagut, Montse Ferrer, Aida Ribera, Luis Rajmil & Jordi Alonso

  2. Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques, Doctor Aiguader 80, Barcelona, 08003, Spain

    Olatz Garin, Michael Herdman, Gemma Vilagut, Montse Ferrer, José M. Valderas & Jordi Alonso

  3. Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain

    Olatz Garin & Jordi Alonso

  4. 4Insight Consulting & Research S.L., Barcelona, Spain

    Michael Herdman

  5. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain

    Montse Ferrer

  6. Unidad de Epidemiología, Servicio de Cardiología, Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

    Aida Ribera

  7. Agència d’Informació, Avaluació i Qualitat en Salut (AIAQS), Barcelona, Spain

    Luis Rajmil

  8. Department of Primary Health Care Sciences, Health Services and Policy Research Group, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    José M. Valderas

  9. Service d’epidémiologie et évaluation cliniques, Centre d’Epidémiologie Clinique, INSERM CIE6, CHU de Nancy, France

    Francis Guillemin

  10. Center for Health Outcomes Research, United BioSource Corporation, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Dennis Revicki

Authors
  1. Olatz Garin
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  2. Michael Herdman
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  3. Gemma Vilagut
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  4. Montse Ferrer
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  5. Aida Ribera
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  6. Luis Rajmil
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  7. José M. Valderas
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  8. Francis Guillemin
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  9. Dennis Revicki
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  10. Jordi Alonso
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jordi Alonso.

Additional information

The study was conducted on behalf of the EMPRO-HF Group.

EMPRO-HF Group: Allá F, Arnould B, Becerra V, Barblaglia G, Castellví P, Clayson D, Erhart M, Fairclough D, Fleck M, Garcia-Forero C, Gonçalves DC, Gotay C, las Hayas C, Lloyd A, Mathias S, Permanyer-Miralda G, Pont A, Prieto L, Ravens-Sieberer U, Schmidt S, Villalonga-Olives E.

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Garin, O., Herdman, M., Vilagut, G. et al. Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with heart failure: a systematic, standardized comparison of available measures. Heart Fail Rev 19, 359–367 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-013-9394-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-013-9394-7

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