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The Performance of the World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF in Assessing the Quality of Life of Thai College Students

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of the Thai-version of WHOQOL-BREF in assessing the quality of life (QoL) among Thai college students. The psychometric properties of WHOQOL-BREF were assessed in this study. The self-administered WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was applied. A total of 407 Thai college students (male age = 20.5 ± 1.2; female age = 20.5 ± 1.2) participated in this study. Item-response distributions, internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity through confirmatory analysis were analyzed. The findings indicate that the WHOQOL-BREF had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.73–0.83 across four domains), all items highly correlated with corresponding domain scores (r = 0.53–0.80), the indices of a two-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrate that the data fit the model well with allowing covary of error variances of some items, all items had good property of criterion-related validity and item discrimination and, all three domain scores except the social relationship domain had significant associations with overall QoL or general health. The results suggest that the WHOQOL-BREF was reliable and valid to health professionals in the assessment of the QoL of college-based Thai youth, but some unsuitable items may be deleted in future studies.

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Abbreviations

WHOQOL:

World Health Organization Quality of Life

BREF:

Abbreviated version

QoL:

Quality of life

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Kaigang Li, Noy S. Kay & Nattiporn Nokkaew

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  1. Kaigang Li
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  2. Noy S. Kay
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  3. Nattiporn Nokkaew
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Correspondence to Kaigang Li.

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Li, K., Kay, N.S. & Nokkaew, N. The Performance of the World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF in Assessing the Quality of Life of Thai College Students. Soc Indic Res 90, 489–501 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9272-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9272-1

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