Department of Family Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS), Kaunas, Lithuania.
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Eur J Gen Pract. 2023 Dec;29(1):2284257. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2023.2284257. Epub 2023 Nov 27.
The increasing prevalence of multimorbidity among older people in Lithuania and other Central-Eastern European countries leads to a greater patient treatment burden and puts additional pressure on healthcare services.
This study aimed to validate the Lithuanian version of the Multimorbidity Treatment Burden Questionnaire (MTBQ).
The Lithuanian version of the MTBQ was tested (2021-2022) with 789 patients from seven Lithuanian primary care centres who had two or more long-term conditions. The questionnaire translation's reliability, validity and dimensionality of the were assessed with Spearman's rank correlation, Cronbach's alpha, and factor reduction analysis. Treatment burden and its associations with sociodemographic and other indicators were analysed.
Lithuanian version of MTBQ had good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.711), validity, factor reduction applicability, and interpretability. The MTBQ scores of the questionnaire had a negative association with the quality-of-life scale (r=-0.327, 95% CI [-0.389, -0.264]) and positive associations with the self-rated health scores ( = 0.230, 95% CI [0.163, 0.297]) and with the number of comorbidities ( = 0.164, 95% CI [0.097, 0.233]). Distribution of treatment burden was identified (none (19,4%), low (46,6%), medium (25%), high (9%)). High treatment burden was found to be associated with having five or more long-term diseases, taking five or more medications, having anxiety or depression and living in a rural area.
The study's findings show that the MTBQ is applicable in assessing the treatment burden of multimorbid patients in Lithuania. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that Lithuanian patients with multimorbidity have average treatment burden scores similar to or higher than participants in previous MTBQ validation studies.
立陶宛和其他中东欧国家的老年人多病共存的患病率不断上升，导致患者治疗负担加重，给医疗保健服务带来额外压力。
本研究旨在验证立陶宛版多病症治疗负担问卷（MTBQ）。
2021 年至 2022 年，对来自立陶宛七个初级保健中心的 789 名患有两种或两种以上慢性疾病的患者进行了立陶宛版 MTBQ 测试。采用 Spearman 秩相关、克朗巴赫α系数和因子缩减分析评估问卷翻译的可靠性、有效性和维度。分析了治疗负担及其与社会人口学和其他指标的关联。
立陶宛版 MTBQ 具有良好的内部可靠性（克朗巴赫α系数 0.711）、有效性、因子缩减适用性和可解释性。问卷的 MTBQ 评分与生活质量量表呈负相关（r=-0.327，95%置信区间[-0.389，-0.264]），与自我报告健康评分呈正相关（r=0.230，95%置信区间[0.163，0.297]），与共病数量呈正相关（r=0.164，95%置信区间[0.097，0.233]）。确定了治疗负担的分布（无负担（19%）、低负担（46%）、中负担（25%）、高负担（9%））。发现高治疗负担与患有五种或五种以上慢性疾病、服用五种或五种以上药物、患有焦虑或抑郁以及居住在农村地区有关。
研究结果表明，MTBQ 可用于评估立陶宛多病共存患者的治疗负担。此外，研究表明，立陶宛多病共存患者的治疗负担评分与之前 MTBQ 验证研究的参与者相似或更高。
