Purpose: To psychometrically evaluate a Swedish version of the Quick Environment Exposure Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI), originally developed in the United States, which is a sensitive and fast questionnaire instrument with five scales used to investigate chemical intolerance.
Methods: Ninety non-intolerant, 67 mildly intolerant, and 126 moderately/severely intolerant individuals to environmental chemicals responded at test and retest (n = 69, 64, 120, respectively) occasions to the Swedish version of the QEESI.
Results: Good internal consistency (alpha = 0.74-0.95) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.78-0.93) was found in all scales, except for the internal consistency in the Masking Index (Kuder-Richardson coefficient = 0.10). All scales, but the Masking Index, further showed good convergent validity (somewhat lower in the Other Intolerences scale) and predominantly unidimensionality.
Conclusions: The Swedish version of the QEESI is reliable and valid for investigation of chemical intolerance, but the Masking Index scale does not represent a unified concept of exposure to masking agents.