Geriatrie

Geerinck A1.. Locquet M1. Bruyère O1. Reginster J.Y1,2.. Beaudart C1

1.  Division of Public Health. Epidemiology and Health Economics. University of Liège. Belgium. World Health  OrganizationCollaborating Centre for Public Health aspects of musculoskeletal health and ageing
2.  Chair for Biomarkers of Chronic Diseases. College of Science. King Saud University. Riyadh. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The SarQoL® questionnaire was specifically designed to measure quality of life (QoL) in sarcopenia. Frailty and sarcopenia have areas of overlap, notably weak muscle strength and slow gait speed, which may mean that the SarQoL® could provide a measure of QoL in frailty. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SarQoL® questionnaire in physical frailty using the Fried criteria.

Methods

Analyses were carried out on data from the 2nd year (and the 5th year for responsiveness) of the SarcoPhAge study. Frailty was assessed with the Fried criteria, QoL with the SarQoL®, the SF-36 and the EQ¬SD. We evaluated discriminative power (Anova), internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) construct validity (hypotheses testing), test-retest reliability (ICC), measurement error (SEM and SDC) and responsiveness (hypotheses testing and standardized response means).

Results

In total, 395 subjects were included for the validation and 117 subjects for the responsiveness evaluation. Subjects had a median age of 73 (69-79) years, took 5 (3-8) drugs and had 4 (3-5) comorbidities. There were more women (n=231; 58,5%) than men, and, in total, 175 non-frail, 174pre-frail and 46 frail subjects. Discriminative power was confirmed when significantly lower (p>0.001) Overall QoL scores were observed between non-frail [77.1 (64.35-85.90)], pre-frail [62.54 (53.33 -69.57)] and frail [49.99 (40.45-56.06)] participants. Six of the domains performed likewise, with significantly lower scores according to frailty status, domain 7 (Fears) being the exception.

Internal consistency was good (Ä=0.866) Convergent (using SF-36 and EQ-5D) and divergent construct validity ®using EQ-5D) was confirmed. Test-retest reliability was excellent [ICC=0.918 (0.834-0.961)], with a SEM of 4.34 and an SDC of 12.03 points. We found moderate responsiveness when 5/9 hypotheses were confirmed, coupled with a large effect size for the Overall QoL score (Corrected SRM of -1.114).

Conclusion

The SarQoL® questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties for use with frail patients in clinical practice and trials, and could provide data that is more appropriate and detailed than the generic questionnaires currently used.

 

Source: Published as abstract in Volume 31

Supplement 1 of „Osteoporosis International“.

 

Anton Geerinck

Division of Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics

University of Liège (Belgium)

anton.geerinck@uliege.be