Development of the Revised Alzheimer's Disease-Related Quality of Life (ADRQL) in Japanese Version

Purpose: The Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Quality of Life (ADRQL) revised instrument was developed to assess health-related quality of life in people with Alzheimer’s disease using assessments from family caregivers or professional staff. validity and reliability of the original form was examined, a revised ADRQL has not done although various care setting for dementia are needed to assess the effects of treatments and care.  The purpose of this study was to examine validity and reliability of the  revised ADRQL for Japanese elderly and related factors to ADQOL.  

Methods: Original version of the ADRQL including 48 items was translated into Japanese. The revised ADRQL consists of 40 of the 48 items that assess 5 domains; social interaction, awareness of self, feeling and mood, enjoyment of activities, response to surroundings. Scoring was made for the overall ADRQL scale and for each of the five domains according to user’s manual in group home setting in Japan. 

Results: The revised ADRQL exhibits very low missing data and good reliability for total score. Cronbach’s alpha of the total score was .769 and each domain showed .806 for social interaction, .431 for awareness of self, .700 for feeling and mood, .193 for enjoyment of activities, and .490 for response to surroundings. Concurrent validity was examined between the revised ADRQL and level of dementia and ADL. Strong associations were shown between both level of dementia (r=-.539, p<0.001) and ADL (r=.675, p<0.001). Age and gender were not related to ADQOL, on the other hand, level of dementia (r=-.539, p<0.001), level of caregiving (r=-.581, p<0.001), length of stay (r=-.363, p=0.001), and ADL (r=.675, p<0.001) were significantly associated to ADQOL. 

Conclusion: The revised ADRQL indicated good reliability and validity although some domain’s Cronbach’s alpha were low.