Reliability and validity of and responsiveness to the Taiwanese version of the QOLBI questionnaire

Objectives: The suitability of the disease-specific Quality of Life of Brain Injured questionnaire (QOLBI) was determined in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: One hundred subjects with TBI aged 18 or older were recruited from 22 hospitals in northern Taiwan. The translated Taiwanese version of the 37-item QOLBI is categorized into six domains: physical, intellectual, psychological, functional, social, and personal. Results: Cronbach's α coefficients for internal consistency ranged from 0.74 to 0.97, while the interclass correlation coefficients for test-retest reliability were from 0.73 to 0.99. For convergent validity, Pearson's correlation coefficients comparing the QOLBI and WHOQOL-BREF in the domains of physical, psychological, social, and personal were each more than 0.4. When discriminant validity was assessed, all six QOLBI domain scores were significantly higher for subjects who returned to work compared with those who did not return to work. The Comparative Fit Index of the confirmatory factor analysis was 0.86. As the return to work was used as an external indicator to measure the responsiveness of each QOLBI domain, the effect sizes of the six QOLBI domains ranged from 0.17 to 0.56. Conclusions: Results indicate that, although there is room for improvement, QOLBI is an acceptable instrument for assessing quality of life persons with TBI.