Reliability and construct validity of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) among English-speaking, American college students

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and construct validity of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) among English-speaking, American college students. This brief 26-item self-administered instrument was created to measure four quality of life domains: Physical, Psychological, Social, and Environmental. All items used a five-point Likert response scale representing the following options: 1- Not at all, 2- A little, 3- A moderate amount, 4-Very much and 5-An extreme amount. While validated among various populations and languages, it is currently unclear whether this instrument is appropriate for use with English-speaking, American college populations. In Fall 2009 and Spring 2010, 1773 English-speaking American college students from a southeastern university completed a confidential online version of the WHOQOL-BREF. Using PAWS 17.0 and AMOS 17.0, descriptive statistics and factor analyses were conducted. Model fit was assessed using multiple fit indices. Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated that the prescribed four factor model did not provide a good fit for the current data. Exploratory Factor Analysis indicated a five-factor model was the best fit. However, based upon goodness-of-fit indices, it was determined that the five-factor model was also a poor fit. A review of the literature suggests that this was the first study to investigate the WHOQOL-BREF among English-speaking, American college students. The results of this research are dissimilar from the previous validation studies of the WHOQOL-BREF conducted with non-English samples. Further validation studies of the instrument with English-speaking populations are recommended.