Validity and feasibility of the Wound-QoL questionnaire on health-related quality of life in chronic wounds

Abstract

Chronic wounds have a major socio-economic impact due to their frequency, chronicity and societal costs. Patients experience substantial quality of life (QoL) impairments. The use of questionnaires for a continuous assessment of quality of life and resulting interventions to improve the situation of the individual are an important cornerstone of a guideline-based wound care. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the Wound-QoL questionnaire.

Patients with chronic wounds from two different centers were included in the prospective study. All patients completed the Wound-QoL questionnaire and 2 other QoL questionnaires (European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions, EQ-5D, and Freiburg Life Quality Assessment for wounds, FLQA-wk) at baseline and at 2 more time points (4 and 8 weeks, respectively). Wound status was defined with an anchor question.

227 patients (48.5% women) participated in the study. Mean age was 66.9 (range 17 - 96, median 69.5). Indications were venous leg ulcers (40.1%), pyoderma gangraenosum (14.1%), diabetic or ischaemic foot ulcers (5.3%), pressure ulcers (2.6%) and other aetiologies (37.9%). Wound-QoL showed good internal consistency, with high Cronbach's alpha in all the subscales and in the global scale in all time points (> 0.8). Convergent validity was satisfactory since there was a significant (p < 0.001) good correlation with EQ-5D (range = 0.5 - 0.7) and FLQA-wk global score (r > 0.8) at every time point. Responsiveness was high, too.

Wound- QoL is a simple, valid tool for the longitudinal assessment of QoL in patients with chronic wounds. This questionnaire is suitable for use in clinical trials, quality of care studies and in clinical routine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.