Quality-of-life measures: hospital interview versus home questionnaire.

Measures adapted from social survey research were used to assess the quality of life of 33 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in a 2-week test-retest design that varied both location and format of administration (hospital interview vs. home self-administered questionnaire). The measures were found to have substantial consistency over time, location, and format. These results indicate that quality of life is a stable construct and support the usefulness of questionnaire quality-of-life measures for evaluating medical interventions.