Abstract
PurposeSubjective quality of life is a central patient-reported outcome in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) is an established and widely used instrument for its assessment. The present study is a secondary analysis of large schizophrenia studies and aims to establish the factorial structure of the MANSA with a rigorous two-step methodology.MethodsA sample of 3120 patients was randomly split into two datasets; the first includes two thirds of the patients and serves as the calibration sample (N = 2071) and the second includes one third of them and serves as the validation sample (N = 1049). We performed an exploratory factor analysis with the calibration sample followed by a confirmatory factor analysis with the validation sample.ResultsOur results for both samples revealed a model with adequate fit comprising two factors. The first factor encompasses eight items measuring satisfaction with a variety of life and health-related aspects of quality of life, whereas the second consists of four items assessing satisfaction with living environment comprising living alone or with others, accommodation, family, and safety. These two factors correlate in a different way with socio-demographic characteristics such as age and living conditions.ConclusionsFuture trials and service evaluation projects using the MANSA to measure quality of life should take into account that satisfaction with living environment may be distinct from satisfaction with other life and health-related aspects of quality of life.
Highlights
Subjective quality of life (SQoL) is regarded as an important outcome in clinical practice and research [1,2,3,4] with patients with psychosis
For the purpose of the present analysis, we merged the data of nine different studies that assessed SQoL using the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (ICD-10: F20-F29 [13])
We considered the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) that provides a comparison of the hypothesised model to an unfit model, delivering a measure of complete variation of the data and showing an adequate fit when the values are > .95 [19] and acceptable when > .90 [21]
Summary
Subjective quality of life (SQoL) is regarded as an important outcome in clinical practice and research [1,2,3,4] with patients with psychosis. The MANSA is based on Lehman’s [6] conceptualisation of quality of life and explores satisfaction with a number of life domains It was created primarily for use in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and has been used in more than 700 studies. It is a brief, administered instrument that was developed as a shortened version of the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile (LQLP [4]) in order to reduce the length of the assessments and respondents’ fatigue. It can be included in research designs that involve extensive evaluations and used in routine clinical practice
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