Establishing the usefulness of the GO-QOL in a UK hospital-treated population with thyroid eye disease in the CIRTED trial

ABSTRACTThyroid eye disease (TED) is a potentially sight-threatening and cosmetically disfiguring condition arising in 25–50% of patients with Graves’ hyperthyroidism. CIRTED is the first study to evaluate the long-term role of radiotherapy and prolonged immunosuppression with azathioprine in treating TED, one aim of which was to validate the use of the English version of GO-QOL in an UK population with TED. In a three stage design over a 48 week period, the GO-QOL was tested and compared to a general measure of quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref). In stage 1 utilising a standard 14 day test-retest design both GO-QOL subscales achieved Cronbach’s alphas demonstrating excellent validity and internal reliability (Visual Function 0.929 and 0.931; Appearance 0.888 and 0.906). In stage 2, Repeated Measures ANOVA demonstrated longitudinal validity, with both subscales of the GO-QOL showing significant change over time (Visual Function, η2 = 0.114, p < .001; Appearance, η2 = 0.069, p < .002). In stage 3 the GO-QOL sho...