ASTHMA QUALITY OF LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE (AQLQ-MEDAN) AS ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH ASTHMA IN MEDAN CITY, INDONESIA (original) (raw)

Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) which was developed to measure the functional disorders in patients with asthma > 17 years old, consists of 32 items divided into four domains (symptoms, activities, emotional limitations, and environmental stimuli). The objective of this research is to determine the instrument used to measure the quality of life in patients with asthma that is valid, reliable, practical, cost-effective, and applicable in Medan city Indonesia. The method applied in this research was qualitative and quantitative approach method. Qualitative study was applied to develop a research instrument by using informations from the patients, specialists, general practitioners, and pharmacologists. Quantitative study was applied by cross-sectional approach. The sample was 200 adults patients with asthma who were using standard asthma medicine, as the combination of inhaled corticosteroid and LABA, the patients were stable and were not suffering from severe asthma or other comorbid diseases, such as heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, liver and renal diseases. The sampling method used was consecutive sampling using data collected from general practitioners and pulmonologists. The research was conducted for 14 months (2011-2012). The validity and reliability of the quality of life questionnaire were determined by Pearson’s correlation analysis, Alpha Cronbach, and confirmatory analysis. The results of this research indicated that the number of valid and reliable questions were 16 items that consisted of 3 health aspects, 4 emotional aspects, 5 environment aspects, and 4 limitation of activity aspects. The value of Alpha Cronbach for all the items was 0.929 and value of loading factor for health, emotional, environmental, and limitation of activity aspects were 0.72, 0.78, 0.64, and 0.87, respectively. The results of model fit indicated by the Goodness of fit with Chi square test 0.509, p 0.775, CMIN/DF 0.266, GFI 0.999, AGFI 0.994, TLI 1.014, CFI 1.000, and RMSEA 0.0001. The results of significant test of the weight factor were 0.0001 which indicated that all of the indicators can be used as the instrument to measure the quality of life in patients with asthma.