The VEINES-QOL/Sym Questionnaire Is a Valid and Reliable Measure of Quality of Life in Patients with Deep Venous Thrombosis

Abstract number: P1634

Kahn¹ SR, Lamping² DL, Ducruet¹ T, Arsenault¹ L, Miron³ MJ, Roussin³ A, Desmarais⁴ S, Joyal³ F, Kassis⁵ J, Solymoss⁶ S, Desjardins⁷ L

¹¹Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada ¹¹Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada ²²Health Services Research Unit, London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK ³³Department of Medicine, Hopital Notre Dame, Montreal, Canada ⁴⁴Department of Medicine, Hopital Pierre Boucher, Longueuil, Canada ⁵⁵Department of Medicine, Hopital Maisonneuve Rosemont, Montreal, Canada ⁶⁶Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada ⁷⁷Department of Medicine, CHUL, Quebec, Canada

Background:  To date, there is no fully validated disease-specific quality of life measure for use in venous thrombosis.

Objective:  To assess the validity of VEINES-QOL/Sym, a patient-reported questionnaire, for the evaluation of quality of life and symptoms in patients with DVT.

Methods:

Design of study:  Psychometric study within the Venous Thrombosis Outcomes (VETO) Study, a research program on long term outcomes after venous thrombosis.

Setting:  Seven hospitals in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Subjects:  359 English and French-speaking patients with acute, objectively diagnosed DVT who participated in the VETO study.

Outcome measure:  The 26-item VEINES-QOL/Sym is a patient-reported questionnaire that was originally developed and validated for use in patients with chronic venous disorders of the leg. It generates separate summary scores for symptoms (VEINES-Sym) and quality of life (VEINES-QOL). We evaluated the acceptability, reliability, validity and responsiveness of VEINES-QOL/Sym in patients with acute DVT.

Results:  Standard psychometric tests confirmed that VEINES-QOL/Sym fully meets accepted criteria for acceptability (missing data, item endorsement frequencies, floor and ceiling effects), reliability (internal consistency, item-total and inter-item correlations, test-retest), validity (content, construct, convergent, discriminant, known groups) and responsiveness to clinical change in patients with deep vein thrombosis.

Conclusions:  The VEINES-QOL/Sym is a practical and scientifically sound patient-reported measure of outcomes that was developed using gold-standard methods. Our results indicate that VEINES-QOL/Sym is valid and reliable for use as a measure of quality of life and symptoms in patients with acute DVT. VEINES-QOL/Sym provides a rigorous tool to allow more comprehensive evaluation of outcomes in clinical trials and epidemiological studies of patients with DVT.