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. 2006 Mar 24;12(3):128–138. doi: 10.1002/mpr.149

The construct validity of the client questionnaire of the Wisconsin Quality of Life Index – a cross‐validation study

Jean Caron 1,✉, Marc Corbière 2, Céline Mercier 3, Pablo Diaz 4, Nicole Ricard 5, Alain Lesage 5
PMCID: PMC6878420  PMID: 12953140

Abstract

The Wisconsin Quality of Life Index (W‐QLI, Becker, Diamond and Sainfort, 1993) consists of eight scales: satisfaction with life domains, occupational activities, symptoms, physical health, social relations/support, finances, psychological wellbeing, and activities of daily living. The W‐QLI has been modified to fit the characteristics of the Canadian population, the universal Canadian health system, and community and social services in Canada and the modified form was named CaW‐QLI (Diaz, Mercier, Hachey, Caron, and Boyer, 1999). This study will verify the empirical basis of these theoretical dimensions by applying a cross‐validation procedure on two samples, most of whose subjects have a serious mental illness. Confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory factor analyses using the principal component extraction technique with varimax rotation were applied. With the exception of the occupational activities domain, the remaining scales were correctly identified by the factor analyses on each sample. The occupational activities scale should be developed by additional items for representing this scale, which is too brief, and two other items should be revised in order to improve the quality of the instrument. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

Keywords: Wisconsin Quality of Life, schizophrenia, psychometric properties, construct validity

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