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The development of the Quality of Life Impact of Refractive Correction (QIRC) questionnaire
Author(s) -
Garamendi E.,
Pesudovs K.,
Elliott D. B.,
Gelsthorpe S.,
Burr J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
ophthalmic and physiological optics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.147
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1475-1313
pISSN - 0275-5408
DOI - 10.1046/j.1475-1313.2002.00086_24.x
Subject(s) - rasch model , contact lens , optometry , quality of life (healthcare) , refractive error , psychology , focus group , refractive surgery , quality (philosophy) , construct (python library) , construct validity , set (abstract data type) , psychometrics , applied psychology , medicine , ophthalmology , eye disease , clinical psychology , computer science , developmental psychology , philosophy , epistemology , marketing , cornea , neuroscience , business , psychotherapist , programming language
Purpose: To develop an instrument for the comprehensive measurement of the impact of refractive correction on quality of life in the pre‐presbyopic age group. To design the questionnaire to be relevant to refractive correction by spectacles, contact lenses and refractive surgery. Methods: Quality of life domains were identified using literature review and professional focus group discussion. Items within these domains were selected from the scientific literature (global, vision‐specific and cosmetic surgery‐specific quality of life instruments) and from suggestions of professionals and lay people. Six focus groups were used for item reduction: Three groups of professionals (psychology and eye care professionals experienced with spectacle, contact lens and refractive surgery patients) and three groups of lay public. The reduced item set was built into a pilot questionnaire. Statistical analysis for item reduction included factor analysis (SPSS) and Rasch modelling (Quest, Rumm 2010). Results: Seven domains of quality of life were selected. Within these, 647 items were selected as possibly being relevant. This number was reduced based on the responses of the focus groups to 90 items, which form a pilot questionnaire. The responses of 306 subjects (102 spectacle wearers, contact lens wearers and people who have had refractive surgery) were used to further reduce items using factor analysis and Rasch modelling. This resulted in the final version of the Quality of Life Impact of Refractive Correction (QIRC) questionnaire. Conclusions: The methodological approach for item selection, item reduction, question construction and response scaling ensures construct validity of the QIRC questionnaire. The QIRC questionnaire is suitable for measuring quality of life in spectacle, contact lens wearers and refractive surgery patients, for outcome and cross‐sectional research.