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Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on February 2, 2006
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2006 41(2):181-187; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agl001
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Medical Council on Alcohol. All rights reserved

ALQOL 9 FOR MEASURING QUALITY OF LIFE IN ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE

LAURENT MALET1,5,*, PIERRE-MICHEL LLORCA1, BÉRÉNICE BERINGUIER2, PHILIPPE LEHERT3,4 and BRUNO FALISSARD5

1 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Psychiatrie B, rue Montalembert BP 69 and 2 Cente Hospitalier Sainte-Marie, 10 avenue Franklin Roosevelt, F-63003 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex 1, France, 3 Department of statistics, Faculty of Economy, FUCAM, MONS, Belgium, 4 Faculty of medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia and 5 INSERM U669—Hôpital Cochin, Maison de Solenn, 97 Boulevard du Port-Royal, F-75679 Paris cedex 14, France

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Tel.: +33 4 73 75 21 24; Fax: +33 4 73 75 21 29; E-mail: lmalet{at}chu-clermontferrand.fr

(Received 12 May 2005; first review notified 12 July 2005; in revised form 28 December 2005; accepted 4 January 2006)

Aims: Quality of life (QoL) is an important factor of outcome tracking and treatment in alcohol misuse. A 9-item QoL scale, AlQoL 9, obtained from the generic SF 36, is proposed as a measure that characterizes the QoL of alcohol-dependent patients. Our objective was to study the psychometric properties of this subscale. Methods: AlQoL 9 was evaluated in two study groups of patients with DSM-IV diagnosis of dependence: 104 inpatients, and 114 outpatients. Severity of dependence, alcohol consumption, psychiatric, and somatic comorbidities were assessed. We studied the global properties of AlQoL 9 and its structure. Results: Cronbach {alpha}-coefficients in both populations indicated good internal consistency (0.71 and 0.85). Test–retest intraclass coefficients for a 2-day interval in hospital were in the range 0.57–0.78. Principal component analysis found a unidimensional scale. This subscale has properties that are consistent with the concept of QoL in alcohol dependence, i.e. lowered QoL compared with the general population, influenced by gender, and depression. Conclusions: AlQoL 9 epitomizes QoL in alcohol-dependence. It gives a global measurement with good psychometric properties. It could be used in clinical practice as a diagnosis and management support instrument and may also be useful in research for evaluating treatment efficacy.


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