Content area
Full Text
Objectives: To evaluate the performance of the US Centers for Disease Control's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scale among 522 college students. Methods: Chi-square analysis assessed scale construct validity and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with selected tobacco, alcohol, and substance use variables assessed known-groups validity of the scale's Healthy Days index. Results: Patterns of association among scale items were consistent with those hypothesized. ANOVA analyses revealed significant (P<.05) associations between the Healthy Days index and selected variables in predicted directions. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence is provided that the HRQOL scale could serve as part of program evaluation, intervention, and surveillance efforts among college students.
Key words: college students, HRQOL, Centers for Disease Control, scale development
Am J Health Behav. 2005;29(6):569-578
Quality of life (QOL) research is becoming a multidisciplinary line of interest among theorists from a of orientations. They argue that physical and mental health criteria should be expanded to include subjective QOL in addition to the absence of physical or mental illness.1"3 Thus, traditional negative health indicators (eg, risk behaviors) should also be supplemented with alternative, subjective health indicators.
Thus, researchers have begun to focus their attention on the development of valid health indicators suitable for large populations. One such measure that has undergone extensive validation among adults4 and preliminary validation among adolescents5 is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 4-itern Health-Related Quality of Life Scale (HRQOL) (Figure 1). This scale offers promising assessment of perceived QOL among multiple populations. For example, the HRQOL scale has grown out of research with adults beginning with its initial placement on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1993.6 Hennessey et al7 first published the conceptual model of the scale items among adults in the United States. Ounpuu et al8 duplicated Hennessey et al's findings among Canadian adults, and recently Zullig et al5 validated the conceptual model with high school adolescents.
Figure 2 displays the conceptual model of the HRQOL scale. Item 1 focuses on self-perceived health, a well-researched item that has been found to be predictive of mortality9,11 and risk behaviors in adults,12 and with personal, behavioral, and psychological factors in adolescents13" 15 and college students.16 Separate physical and mental health questions (items 2 and 3) are asked of participants because general health...