[Quality of life in the focus of quality audits in long-term care]

Abstract

Quality of life - an important outcome factor of long-term care - development and psychometric testing of an audit instrument, the Quality of Life Index, (QoL index"), to assess the consideration for individual quality of life aspects during the care process in long-term care settings is evaluated - even for clients with limited communication skills.A stratified random sample of n=209 residents was drawn out of the population of N=1 128 residents of 8 nursing homes and their individual QoL-aspects were assessed with SEIQoL-DW or in difficult communication situations with "LQ-Index-Informationssammlung". The LQ-Index's new items were validated via a parallel testing with the reference instrument SEIQoL-DW, the split half-reliability, the interrater reliability (Kappa) and a structured expert review according to the cognitive interview technique.All 209 participants were assessed via LQ-Index. The SEIQoL-Interview was completed and estimated valid by 18 (8.61%) residents. The psychometric testing results and the expert review indicate high feasibility, good reliability, validity and objectivity of the instrument "LQ-Index".As a result of this study a feasible and valid instrument is now available to assess the consideration for individual quality of life aspects during the care process in long-term care settings - even for clients with limited communication skills.