• Elisa Aguirre, Sujin Kang, Zoe Hoare, Rhiannon Tudor Edwards, and Martin Orrell.
• Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Charles Bell House, 67-73 Riding House Street, London, W1W 7EJ, England, UK. e.aguirre@ucl.ac.uk.
• Qual Life Res. 2016 Jan 1; 25 (1): 45-9.

PurposeThis study aimed to assess and compare the psychometric performance of the EQ-5D in relation to other dementia-specific measures, the QoL-AD and DEMQoL, within a psychosocial intervention study.MethodsTwo hundred and seventy-two people with dementia completed the EQ-5D, DEMQoL and QoL-AD. Convergent and discriminant validity of the measures were assessed, and inter-rater reliability was tested by comparing the self-reported and proxy scores of the measures. Internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha.ResultsResults satisfy convergent validity amongst the three outcome measures. EQ-5D, DEMQoL and QoL-AD total scores were shown to be significantly correlated with each other (p < 0.001) in both participants with dementia and proxy reports. Results also satisfied discriminant validity for participant EQ-5D, DEMQoL and QoL-AD total scores. In relation to reliability between self and proxy scores, the EQ-5D showed higher reliability scores between participant and proxy total scores for mild and moderate level of cognitive impairment and performed better than the dementia-specific measures. Reliability assessed through Cronbach's alpha was satisfactory, indicating adequate internal consistency of all three measures.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the EQ-5D might have advantages over other dementia-specific measures, and it could be used routinely and as a stand-alone measure of quality of life in dementia research.

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