Reliability and Validity of the World Health Organization Quality of Life: Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) in a Homeless Substance Dependent Veteran Population

With the high number of homeless, there is a critical need for rapid and accurate assessment of quality of life to assess program outcomes. The World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-100 has demonstrated promise in accurately assessing quality-of-life in this population. However, its length may make large scale use impractical for working with a homeless population. The World Health Organization Quality of Life—Brief version (WHOQOL-BREF), though providing a shorter instrument and being, theoretically, more manageable has not been evaluated for use with homeless individuals. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-BREF in 389 homeless veterans. Adequate internal consistency for all domains was found and validity for each domain was supported using the Personality Assessment Inventory. The WHOQOL-BREF provides a reliable, valid, and brief assessment of quality-of-life. Due to the length of the instrument and the domains covered, it could have great utility in the assessment of homeless populations with multiple problem domains.