A global lifestyle assessment: Psychometric properties of the General Lifestyle Questionnaire

Abstract

Lifestyle factors are essential moderators of physical and mental health, and highly influence quality of life as well as well-being across the lifespan (WHO, 2009). As such, using an appropriate and comprehensive assessment of lifestyle is therefore essential in order to detect unhealthy behaviors and be able to prevent their consequences on physical, mental and/or psychological health. A comprehensive and validated assessment of lifestyle adapted to clinical and research settings is currently lacking. This article describes the development, reliability and validity of the General Lifestyle Questionnaire (GLQ), a new tool designed to assess general lifestyle. To our knowledge, the GLQ is the unique tool that simultaneously measures cognitive, physical, social, and other leisure activities, as well as sleep, diet, and substance use (alcohol and tobacco). The GLQ and sociodemographic data were collected among 1043 participants, aged 18 to 84. The development, verification of the readability, classification method and data collection are described along this article. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Intra-Class Correlation coefficient. Validity was tested using correlation coefficients and ANOVAs. Finally, floor and ceiling effects were also verified. Classification of the items within dimensions followed the method proposed by Sörman et al. (2014). Results of this study showed that the GLQ had satisfactory psychometric properties. Cronbach's α revealed a weak to good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=.31 to .75). Temporal stability was very good for the general score (ICC=.86) and good to very good for all the dimensions (ICC=.72 to .87). Furthermore, our analyses demonstrated substantial construct validity of the GLQ with more than 75% of the results that were in accordance with hypotheses tests. Finally, floor and ceiling effects also meet satisfactory criteria (Terwee et al., 2007). Thus, the GLQ is a reliable and valid measure for assessing human engagement in diverse behaviors. As such, this tool may serve as a useful instrument in clinical practice and research involved in understanding how participation in everyday activities influences health, well-being and/or quality of life.