Assessing the construct validity of the Quality-of-Life-Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC): an aged care-specific quality-of-life measure

• Published in: Quality of life research Vol. 31; no. 9; pp. 2849 - 2865
• Main Authors: Khadka, J., Ratcliffe, J., Hutchinson, C., Cleland, J., Mulhern, B., Lancsar, E., Milte, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Elder care; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Public Health; Quality of life; Quality of Life Research; Sociology; Validation studies; Validity; Quality of Life; Preference-based measure; Residential-aged care; Community-aged care
• ISSN: 0962-9343; 1573-2649
• DOI: 10.1007/s11136-022-03142-x

Purpose To evaluate the construct (convergent and known group) validity of the Quality-of-Life-Aged Care Consumer (QOL-ACC), an older-person-specific quality-of-life measure designed for application in quality assessment and economic evaluation in aged care. Methods Convergent validity was assessed by examining relationships with other validated preference-based measures (EQ-5D-5L, ASCOT), quality of aged care experience (QCE-ACC) and life satisfaction (PWI) through an online survey. Known-group validity was assessed by testing the ability to discriminate varying levels of care needs, self-reported health and quality of life. Results Older people (aged ≥ 65 years) receiving community-aged care ( N  = 313) responded; 54.6% were female, 41.8% were living alone and 56.8% were receiving higher-level care. The QOL-ACC and its six dimensions were low to moderately and significantly correlated with the EQ-5D-5L (correlation co-efficient range, ρ  = 0.39–0.56). The QOL-ACC demonstrated moderate and statistically significant correlations with ASCOT ( ρ  = 0.61), the QCE-ACC ( ρ  = 0.51) and the PWI ( ρ  = 0.70). Respondents with poorer self-reported health status, quality of life and/or higher-level care needs demonstrated lower QOL-ACC scores ( P  < 0.001), providing evidence of known-group validity. Conclusions The study provides evidence of the construct validity of the QOL-ACC descriptive system. A preference-weighted value set is currently being developed for the QOL-ACC, which when finalised will be subjected to further validation assessments.