Reliability and validity of dermatology life quality index: assessment of quality of life in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients with pruritic papular eruption

ObjectiveTo test the reliability and validity of dermatology life quality index (DLQI) in simplified Chinese language by assessing the quality of life (QoL) in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)/AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) patients with pruritic papular eruption (PPE).MethodsA study of simplified-Chinese-version DLQI was carried out in Henan province, China. The reliability and validity were tested by means of statistical method. Data were processed with SPSS 19.0.ResultsOne hundred and seven subjects participated in the study and 106 (99.07%) finished the questionnaire. Eighteen patients were mildly affected; 62 were moderately affected, 24 were highly affected, and 2 were extremely affected. Reliability analysis showed that the split-half reliability coefficient of questionnaire was 0.556 and the reliability of the full test estimated with Spearman-Brown. correction was 0.7146. The Cronbach alpha was 0.673. According to validity analysis, the correlation between the scores of items and the total scores ranged from 0.208 to 0.529 (P<0.05). Three factors were abstracted from10 questions with the principal component analysis and the contribution rate of the 3 common factors was 59.95%.ConclusionThe simplified-Chinese-version DIQL is an acceptable and valid scale for HIV/AIDS patients with PPE. It can be used to evaluate the QoL of HIV/AIDS patients with PPE in China.