Validation of a Quality of Life Questionnaire in the Pacific Island

Abstract

Purpose: To adapt an existing validated quality of life instrument, the Impact of Vision Impairment (IVI) questionnaire for Pacific Island countries.

Methods: Following in-depth interviews (n = 24) and a pilot study (n = 67), the original 32-item IVI questionnaire was translated and adapted in Vanuatu. The Melanesian IVI (IVI_M) was administered to participants not previously involved in the pilot study (n = 189).

Results: Participants included 117 (62%) with mild, moderate or severe vision impairment, 39 with unilateral loss and 33 with normal vision. Eighty-six percent of the original 32-items were deemed relevant by 90% of participants. Items displaying floor effects were removed (4), 2 were combined and 3 items rephrased to reflect Melanesian-specific activities, resulting in a 23-item IVI_M. Nineteen items were relevant to both the Melanesian and Australian contexts including all 8 items related to the emotional reaction to vision loss. IVI_M demonstrated content and construct validity, reliability and discriminated visually healthy populations from those with vision impairment. Vision impairment of < 6/18 negatively effected quality of life.

Conclusion: While the adaptation process demonstrated the need for culturally relevant instruments, it also highlighted the value of adapting existing validated instrument for use in cross-cultural research rather than developing a new instrument from first principles.

KEYWORDS::

• Cross cultural research
• Low vision
• Pacific Islands
• Quality of life
• Questionnaires

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported in part by the Australian Government Co-operative Research Centre Program. Additional support included: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Public Health Fellowship (Dr Lamoureux), Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital Wagstaff Fellowship (Professor Keeffe). CERA receives Operational Infrastructure Support from the Victorian Government.

This paper is based on a poster presented at 2007 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.