[Validation of the Schizophrenia Quality Of Life Scale (SQLS) to Measure Quality of Life in Patients Diagnosed With Schizophrenia in Colombia]

Objective: To validate the SQLS scale in Colombian patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Method: The self-report scale was applied to 251 patients. Measures of test-retest reliability, internal consistency and correlation inter-scales with the SF-12 were made by applying the scale 2 days later in 28 patients, and 30 days later in 38; 50 patients filled-out the SF-12 scale to determine the concurrent validity.

Results: Three domains were found with all of them having Cronbach's alphas >0.7. The three factors model did not show adequate fit indexes. Test-retest evaluation showed satisfactory correlation values (>0.86). Sensitivity to change did not shown significant differences between the repeated measures. As regards concurrent validity, acceptable correlation values were found only in SF-12 domains related to mental health and functioning.

Conclusions: The SQLS has a factorial structure consistent with previous reports, adequate internal consistency and temporal stability. However, a more detailed examination of some of these items is required, considering that the measurement of the construct does not appear to be adequate.