Application of the Disease-Specific Quality of Life Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA) Questionnaire in a General Population: Results from a French Panel Study

ObjectivesTo assess the psychometric properties of the disease-specific Quality of Life Assessment of Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA) questionnaire in a general population, and collect French normative data.MethodsA postal survey was conducted on 2900 adult panelists representative of the French population. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire including the QoL-AGHDA and an evaluation of their overall health status (OHS). The QoL-AGHDA score ranges from 0 to 25, a lower score indicating better QoL. Psychometric properties of the QoL-AGHDA were assessed. The mean QoL-AGHDA scores were described by sex and age groups.ResultsThe return rate was 75%. The quality of completion and internal consistency reliability were good: 95% of the respondents completed all 25 QoL-AGHDA items and Cronbach's alpha was 0.86. The QoL-AGHDA score was able to discriminate between the respondents according to their OHS (from 1.5 for excellent to 12.3 for poor OHS, P < 0.001). The mean QoL-AGHDA score was 4.6 for the overall population, 5.1 for females and 4.2 for males, and ranged from 4.8 for the youngest to 6.1 for the oldest respondents.ConclusionsThe QoL-AGHDA questionnaire showed good psychometric properties when administered in the French population. French reference values were collected, completing the QoL-AGHDA normative database already available in several European countries.