Revision and Validation of the Chinese Version of the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire for ICU End-of-Life Patients

Background Hospice care for end-of-life patients in the ICU should focus on quality of life. Currently, there are no specific quality-of-life measures for ICU end-of-life patients in China. Objective The aim of this study was to revise and culturally adapt the Taiwanese version of the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL-Taiwan) and to test its reliability and validity to provide an effective instrument for assessing the quality of life of ICU patients at the end of life. Methods The revision and cultural adaptation of the MQOL-Taiwan were performed to develop a Chinese version of the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire for ICU end-of-life patients (MQOL-ICU). A total of 156 ICU doctors, 286 ICU nurses and 120 ICU family members of end-of-life patients were surveyed with the revised scale to evaluate the quality of life of ICU patients at the end of life. The content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency of the scale were measured after the revision. Results The Chinese version of the MQOL-ICU scale was formed based on the MQOL-Taiwan scale, which includes 8 items. For the Chinese version of the MQOL-ICU, the item-content validity index (I-CVI) ranged from 0.789 to 0.905, and the average scale-level content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.845. After exploratory factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was 0.700, and 3 dominant factors were extracted: physical and psychological symptoms, existential well-being, and support. In addition, 70.385% of the total variance was explained. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) coefficient of the whole MQOL-ICU was 0.804, and the coefficients for the 3 domains ranged from 0.779 to 0.833. Conclusion The Chinese version of the MQOL-ICU showed good reliability and validity, and it can be used to assess the quality of life of ICU patients at the end of life.