• Jeffrey J Swigris, Sandra R Wilson, Kathy E Green, David B Sprunger, Kevin K Brown, and Frederick S Wamboldt.
• Autoimmune Lung Center and Interstitial Lung Disease Program, National Jewish Health, 1400 Jackson Street, Denver, Colorado 80206, USA. swigrisj@njc.org
• Health Qual Life Out. 2010 Jan 1; 8: 77.

BackgroundThere is no disease-specific instrument to assess health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).MethodsPatients' perspectives were collected to develop domains and items for an IPF-specific HRQL instrument. We used item variance and Rasch analysis to construct the ATAQ-IPF (A Tool to Assess Quality of life in IPF).ResultsThe ATAQ-IPF version 1 is composed of 74 items comprising 13 domains. All items fit the Rasch model. Domains and the total instrument possess acceptable psychometric characteristics for a multidimensional questionnaire. The pattern of correlations between ATAQ-IPF scores and physiologic variables known to be important in IPF, along with significant differences in ATAQ-IPF scores between subjects using versus those not using supplemental oxygen, support its validity.ConclusionsPatient-centered and careful statistical methodologies were used to construct the ATAQ-IPF version 1, an IPF-specific HRQL instrument. Simple summation scoring is used to derive individual domain scores as well as a total score. Results support the validity of the ATAQ-IPF, and future studies will build on that validity.

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