Work

Heterogeneity in Item Content of Quality of Life Assessments Used in Depression Psychotherapy Research

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Quality of life (QOL) broadly encompasses constructs including health, well-being, life satisfaction, and psychosocial functioning. Depression, a major cause of global disability, is linked to lower QOL. Despite the rise of measurement-based care and patient-reported outcomes, there is no consensus on QOL definitions or models, resulting in varied assessments. This study aims to describe the item content overlap among commonly used QOL measures in depression research. We analyzed 10 QOL measures from a meta-analysis, calculating Jaccard indices to quantify overlap, and used two coding approaches: one for similarly worded items and another for exact word matches. We also categorized items into broader themes. At the most, average Jaccard similarity was M = 0.14 (SD = 0.12), indicating significant heterogeneity among QOL measures in depression. This suggests that QOL outcomes may not be reproducible across different scales. Future research should examine the relationships between the content assessed by various QOL measures.

Source: Assessment

DOI: 10.1177/10731911251326399

Authors: Allison Peipert, Sydney Adams, Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces

Institution: Indiana University Bloomington

Language: English

Topic: Psychometric Methodologies and Testing

Subfield: Management Science and Operations Research

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences