| Name of the Instrument/Tool | Assessment of Quality of Life Scale (AQoL) |
| First Description |
Hawthorne G, Richardson J, Osborne R. The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument: a psychometric measure of health-related quality of life. Qual Life Res 1999;8:209–24. |
| Year | 1999 |
| Domains | |
| Concept of constructs | Health related quality of life |
| Population/Disease | Generic |
| Originally developed for | --- |
| Other rheumatic diseases where can be applied (only if validated) |
Osteoarthritis (OA), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) |
| Additional population with no rheumatic diseases |
No |
| Language: Originally published in | English |
| Available in Language | German, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Danish |
| REFERENCE IDENTIFICATION | |
| Author/s | Hawthorne G, Richardson J, Osborne R |
| Title | The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument: a psychometric measure of health-related quality of life |
| Journal | Qual Life Res |
| Year | 1999 |
| Vol | 8 |
| Num | 3 |
| Pages | 209-24 |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Other references of interest | |
| Link | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22507254/ |
| Brief Description |
Construction of the descriptive system for the assessment of quality of life AQoL-6D utility instrument. |
| Link | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14651425/ |
| Brief Description |
The effect of different methods of collecting data: mail, telephone and filter data collection issues in utility measurement |
| Link | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33091274/ |
| Brief Description |
Adult Measures of General Health and Health-Related Quality of Life |
| Instrument/Tool Translations References | |
| No other References. | |
| DEVELOPER CONTACT INFORMATION | |
| Correspondence to | Graeme Hawthorne |
| graemeeh@unimelb.edu.au | |
| Address | Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Melbourne, Australia. |
| Website | --- |
| Available | --- |
| Links | --- |
| DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENT | |
| Type Of Measure | Scale |
| Brief Description |
The AQoL instruments are multiattribute utility measures of HRQOL. In a similar way to other health utility measures, the AQoL instruments were designed for use across health conditions to enable health economic evaluation studies to be undertaken. Several versions have been developed to date: the AQoL-4D (the original version), the AQoL-6D (which includes pain and coping domains), the AQoL-7D (the AQoL-6D plus a vision domain), the AQoL-8D (with domains for mental health), and an abridged version of the AQoL-4D called the AQoL-8 (which has only eight items). The AQoL-4D consists of the following four domains: independent living, mental health, relationships, and senses. The AQoL-6D includes the same four domains (but with revised items and response options) and the following two additional domains: coping and pain |
| Number of Items | AQoL-4D:12 items (4 domains). AQoL-6D:20 items (6 domains) |
| Range | −0.04 (health state worse than death) to 0.00 (death) and 1.00 (full health) |
| Responses options/scale |
Yes AQoL-4D items: four response options. AQoL-6D items: four and seven options |
| Developed for | --- |
| PRACTICAL APPLICATION | |
| Method of administration | Self-administered, Interviewer/assessor |
| Recommendations to score |
Domain scores and an overall utility score are calculated for each instrument. The health states described by the items are initially weighted using values obtained from the general population from Time Trade-Off interviews. Domain scores within an AQoL instrument are combined using a multiplicative scoring procedure. Scoring algorithms are available for download from the AQoL website in SPSS and STATA readable formats (https://www.aqol.com.au/index.php/scoring-algorithms). The scoring algorithm allows for only one missing value per domain for domains with three to four items and two missing values per domain for domains with more than four items. Missing values are imputed from the mean of the nonmissing items in the domain. |
| Score Interpretation | Lower scores indicate lower health status |
| Cut-off points | --- |
| Cut-off points applied to | --- |
| Smallest detectable change if described | --- |
| Smallest detectable change applied to | --- |
| Completion time by the patient | 1-3 minutes |
| Scoring time by the assessor | - minutes |
| Training to score | Not necessary |
| Strengths | Useful in clinical practice & research |
| Limitations | --- |
| OTHER COMMENTS | |
| Other Comments | --- |