Quality of life measures for patients on hemodialysis: a review of psychometric properties.

This review describes quality of life (QOL) instruments and evaluates evidence of reliability and validity as obtained from articles where QOL was assessed for patients with end stage renal disease. Articles selected for review were based on the construct of QOL measures for adult patients on hemodialysis (HD). Articles reviewed were in English and published between 1982 and 2007 as identified by searches in Medline, PubMed, Pubmed Central, SCOPUS, and CINAHL. Key words included adults, hemodialysis, ESRD, reliability, validity, QOL measures, QOL instruments, and health-related QOL instruments. Of the 146 articles meeting the inclusion criteria, 80 were reviewed. Of these, 38 articles were observational studies, and 34 QOL measures were identified. Analysis permitted sorting the instruments as generic measures (59%), patient-preference measures (15%), and disease-specific measures (26%). Studies using the most commonly used disease-specific instrument, the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SF), reported minimal psychometric testing. Within the HD population, multidimensional QOL instruments that are adequately tested, reliable, and valid are needed. Since reliability and validity may vary from one group of participants to another or from one disease population to another, it is beneficial for researchers to take the time and effort to establish psychometric properties for their QOL instruments.