The value of the qualitative method for adaptation of a disease-specific quality of life assessment instrument: the case
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The value of the qualitative method for adaptation of a disease-specific quality of life assessment instrument: the case of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life Scale (RAQoL) in Estonia Marika Tammaru*1, Judit Strömpl2, Kadri Maimets1 and Ele Hanson1 Address: 1Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Puusepa 6, Tartu, 51014, Estonia and 2Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia Email: Marika Tammaru* - [email protected]; Judit Strömpl - [email protected]; Kadri Maimets - [email protected]; Ele Hanson - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 04 December 2004 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2004, 2:69
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-2-69
Received: 18 August 2004 Accepted: 04 December 2004
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/2/1/69 © 2004 Tammaru et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Due to differences in current socio-economical situation and historically shaped values, different societies have their own concepts of high-quality life. This diversity of concepts interferes with quality of life (Qol) research in health sciences. Before deciding to apply a Qol assessment tool designed in and for another society, a researcher should answer the question: how will this instrument work under the specific circumstances of my research. Our study represents an example of the utilization of qualitative research methods to investigate the appropriateness of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality of Life Scale (RAQol) for the assessment of Qol in Estonian patients. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients of Tartu University Hospital and these were analyzed using the principles of the grounded theory. Results: We described the significance of the questionnaire's items for our patients and also identified topics that were important for the Qol of Estonian RA patients, but that were not assessed by the RAQol. We concluded that the RAQol can be successfully adapted for Estonia; the aspects of Qol not captured by the questionnaire but revealed during our study should be taken into account in future research. Conclusions: Our results show that qualitative research can successfully be used for preadaptation assessment of a Qol instrument's appropriateness.
Background With this article we are introducing our experience of how qualitative research can be utilized in the process of adapting of a quality of life (Qol) assessment instrument. We will argue the unique benefits of the qualitative method for assuring the validity of an adapted measure.
Qol cannot be treated as something uniform and stable. One reason for its varia
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