Validation of the French version of the MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life questionnaire.

BACKGROUND

Assessment of health-related quality of life is widely recommended by European health agencies in relevant research studies as well as in clinical care.

AIMS

To validate the French version of the MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life questionnaire.

METHODS

As part of the International HeartQoL Project, 323 French-speaking patients with ischaemic heart disease (angina, n=76; myocardial infarction [MI], n=155; heart failure, n=91; mean age 58.6±11.3 years) were recruited at seven cardiac rehabilitation centres. All patients completed the French versions of the MacNew questionnaire, the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, to evaluate the psychometric properties of the French version of the MacNew instrument.

RESULTS

The mean MacNew global scale scores were 4.6±0.8, 5.0±1.0 and 4.8±0.9 in patients with angina, MI and heart failure, respectively (P<0.05, MI versus angina). We observed minimal missing items and ceiling effects and no floor effects. Factor analysis confirmed a three factorial structure explaining 55.9% of the observed variance. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α) ranged from 0.86 to 0.94 and test-retest reliability ranged from 0.68 to 0.73 Convergent validity was confirmed in the total group and each diagnosis, although the correlations between the MacNew physical subscale and the SF-36 mental component summary were higher than expected. Discriminative validity was partially confirmed with the SF-36 health transition item and fully confirmed with anxiety and depression as predictor variables.

CONCLUSION

The French version of MacNew questionnaire is recommended for assessing health-related quality of life in French-speaking patients with ischaemic heart disease.