Acceptability and Psychometric Properties of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire Among Patients Undergoing Heart Valve Surgery: Validation and Comparison With SF-36

BackgroundHealth-related quality of life (HQOL) enhancement is a major objective of valvular surgery (VS), but assessments have been limited primarily to generic measures that may not be optimally responsive to intervention. Disease-specific instruments have been used in heart failure (HF), commonly associated with valve disease, but have been neither validated nor routinely applied among patients undergoing VS.Methods and ResultsWe administered the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHFQ) and SF-36 questionnaires preoperatively (T0) to 50 patients undergoing VS and at 1 (T1) and 6 months (T2) after VS. Performance of MLHFQ was evaluated and compared with SF-36. MLHFQ completion rates were >98% (NS vs. SF-36); Cronbach's α was ≥0.9 (total score, dimensions), supporting internal reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis verified good model fit for physical/emotional domain items (relative chi-squares <3.0, critical ratios >2.0, both instruments), supporting structural validity. Spearman coefficients correlating MLHFQ with parallel SF-36 domains were moderate to high (0.6-0.9; P ≤ .001: T0-T2), supporting convergent validity. Baseline HQOL was poorest in patients with HF (P ≤ .05 [both instruments]), supporting criterion validity. Responsiveness (proportional HQOL change scores: T0 vs. T2) to VS was greater with MLHFQ vs. SF-36 (P ≤ .002).ConclusionsAmong patients undergoing VS, the MLHFQ is highly acceptable and maintains good psychometric properties, comparing favorably with SF-36. These findings suggest its utility for measuring disease-specific HQOL changes after VS.