Assessment of Quality of Life 8-Dimension (AQoL-8D): translation, validation, and application in two Dutch trials in patients with epilepsy and schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND To translate and linguistically validate the Assessment of Quality of Life 8-dimensions (AQoL-8D) for use in the Netherlands and to compare the psychometric properties of AQoL-8D with the EuroQol 5-dimensions 5-levels (EQ-5D-5L) in two patient samples. METHODS AQoL-8D was translated from English into Dutch. The translated AQoL-8D was then administered alongside the EQ-5D-5L at baseline and follow-up of two Dutch randomized controlled trials among patients with epilepsy and schizophrenia. These data were subjected to a post-hoc analysis assessing the psychometric properties of AQol-8D vis-a-vis EQ-5D-5L in terms of known-groups construct validity, responsiveness, and floor/ceiling effects. RESULTS In total, 103 epilepsy patients and 99 schizophrenia patients were included in this study. In both datasets, the two instruments discriminated between known-groups, but in schizophrenia, AQoL-8D showed higher responsiveness than EQ-5D-5L, while both instruments showed equal responsiveness in epilepsy. Ceiling effects were only found for EQ-5D-5L in both epilepsy (26.6%) and schizophrenia (6.1%). CONCLUSION Our results have shown that, among other things, AQoL-8D presents better ability to discriminate between known-groups and shows no ceiling effect. Based on our results, we would recommend the use of AQoL-8D in addition to EQ-5D-5L in trials assessing patient's quality of life in patients with epilepsy or schizophrenia.