Table 1.

OPQOL, CASP-19, and WHOQOL-OLD distributions. NB. 3 additional OPQOL items were generated by Ethnibus focus groups which were too late to be included in the QoL follow-up survey, but were included in the ONS Omnibus and Ethnibus Surveys.

	Ethnibus survey (ethnically diverse British pop. aged 65+)	ONS Omnibus survey (British pop. aged 65+)	QoL follow-up survey (ONS Omnibus sample of British pop. aged 65+ in 1999/2000 refollowed up when aged 74+)
OPQOL TOTAL [ethnibus, ONS Omnibus 35 items; 5-point scale (1–5) range 35–175; QoL followup: 32 items, range 32–160)]	% (n)	% (n)	% (n)
≤ 99 QoL bad as can be	6 (24)	1 (6)	7 (17) ****
100–119	67 (266)	11 (64)	38 (96)
120–139	25 (100)	52 (289)	43 (108)
140–159	2 (9)	32 (178)	12 (29)
160–175 QoL good as can be	— (1)	4 (23)	—
Mean (standard deviation)	114.538 (10.718)	134.730 (14.243)	121.385 (14.048)
Cronbach's alpha of internal consistency (reliability)	0.748	0.876	0.901
No. responses	400	560	250
Casp-19 TOTAL [19 items; 5-point (0–3) scale range 0–57]
≤19 absence of QoL	— (2)	1 (5) ****	n/a
20–29	23 (92)	7 (38)
30–39	68 (271)	27 (158)
40–49	8 (32)	46 (265)
50–57 satisfaction in all domains	1 (3)	19 (107)
Mean (standard deviation)	33.235 (5.103)	41.836 (8.120)
Cronbach's alpha of internal consistency (reliability)	0.553	0.866	n/a
No. responses	400	573
WHOQOL-OLD TOTAL [24 items; 5-point (1–5) scale range 24–120]
≤69 lowest possible QoL	2 (6)	4 (22)****	n/a
70–79	23 (94)	11 (58)
80–89	58 (234)	24 (130)
90–99	15 (59)	40 (182)
100–120 the highest possible QoL	2 (7)	27 (144)
Mean (standard deviation)	83.488 (6.547)	91.925 (11.764)
Cronbach's alpha of internal consistency (reliability)	0.415	0.849	n/a
N. responses	400	536

n/a: not asked in QoL follow-up survey as additional scales were judged to be too burdensome in the postal administration survey.

****P < .0001.