Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 4, 2022
Date Accepted: Jun 20, 2022
Validation of the mobile application version of the EQ-5D-5L Quality of Life Questionnaire against the gold standard paper-based version: A randomized cross-over study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Study participants and patients often perceive (long) questionnaires as burdensome. In addition, paper-based questionnaires are prone to errors such as (unintentionally) skipping questions or filling in a wrong type of answer. With the emergence of mobile questionnaire applications, such errors can be prevented.
Objective:
The objective of the present study was to validate an innovative way to measure quality of life using a mobile application (mobile app), based on the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. This validation study compared the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire requested by a mobile app to the gold standard, a paper-based version of the EQ-5D-5L.
Methods:
The study was designed as a randomized, cross-over, and open study. Each participant received a digital version of the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire requested via a mobile app and the EQ-5D-5L paper-based questionnaire sent by postal mail. In the mobile app participants received, spread over five consecutive days, one question in the morning and one question in the afternoon and all questions were asked twice (at timepoint 1 (App T1) and timepoint 2 (App T2)). Primary outcomes were the correlations between the answers (scores) of each EQ-5D-5L question requested via the mobile app compared with the paper-based questionnaire to assess convergent validity.
Results:
In total 255 participants (healthy at own discretion), of which 117 men and 138 women in the age range of 18 – 64 years, completed the study. All questions showed a high correlation (0.64 - 0.92) for the paper-based EQ-5D-5L questionnaire versus the mobile app-based questions at App T1 and App T2. The scores and their variance remain similar over questionnaires, indicating no clear difference in answer tendency. Also, the correlation between the two app-based questionnaires was high (>0.73), illustrating a high test-retest reliability, and a reliable replacement for the paper-based questionnaire.
Conclusions:
The present study indicates that the mobile app is a valid tool for measuring quality of life and is as reliable as the paper-based version of the EQ-5D-5L, while reducing response burden.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.