Abstract
This paper reports the evaluation of a generic measure of psychological well-being, the 12-item Well-being Questionnaire (W-BQ12), for use with people who have the chronic eye condition, macular disease (MD). The W-BQ12 was incorporated in a self-administered questionnaire which was completed by 1421 members of the Macular Disease Society (MD Society). Unforced factor analysis elicited the expected three factors representing constructs of positive well-being, energy and negative well-being. A forced single-factor solution supported use of the whole scale to measure total general well-being. High Cronbach's α coefficients demonstrated good internal consistency reliability in the entire scale (α = 0.87) and in subscales (α > 0.78). The factor structure matched that found in samples of people with diabetes for whom the W-BQ12 was first developed, indicating construct validity. Expected subgroup differences in the MD sample indicated significantly poorer well-being in women than in men and also in participants who were registered blind or partially sighted compared to those who were not registered. The W-BQ12 will be useful in measuring outcomes in rehabilitative and medical interventions and in researching factors affecting adjustment to MD.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
O'Shea JG. Age-related macular degeneration. Postgraduate Med J 1998; 74: 203–207.
Mitchell P, Smith W, Attebo K, Wang JJ. Prevalence of age-related maculopathy in Australia: The Blue Mountains eye study. Ophthalmology 1995; 102: 1450–1460.
Klein R, Klein BEK, Linton KLP. Prevalence of age-related maculopathy: The Beaver Dam eye study. Ophthalmology 1992; 99: 933–943.
Vingerling JR, Dielemans I, Hofman A, et al. The prevalence of age-related maculopathy in the Rotterdam study. Ophthalmology 1995; 102: 205–210.
Evans J, Wormald R. Is the incidence of registrable age-related macular degeneration increasing? Br J Ophthalmol 1996; 80: 9–14.
Evans JR. Causes of Partial Sight and Blindness in England and Wales 1990–1991. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects 57. London: HMSO, 1995.
Davis C, Lovie-Kitchen J, Thompson B. Psychosocial adjustment to age-related macular degeneration. J Vis Impair Blind 1995; 1: 16–27.
Williams RA, Brody BL, Thomas RG, Kaplan RM, Brown SI. The psychosocial impact of macular degeneration. Arch Ophthalmol 1998; 116: 514–520.
Mangione CM, Gutierrez PR, Lowe G, Orav EJ, Seddon JM. Influence of age-related maculopathy on visual functioning and health-related quality of life. Am J Ophthalmol 1999; 128: 45–53.
Bradley C. The Well-being Questionnaire. In: Bradley C (ed), The Handbook of Psychology and Diabetes: A Guide to psychological Measures in Diabetes Research and Practice, Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Press, 1994; 89–109.
Warr PB, Banks MH, Ullah P. The experience of unemployment among black and white urban teenagers. Br J Psychol 1985; 76: 75–87.
Zung WWK. A self-rating depression scale. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1965; 12: 63–70.
McMillan C. Growth hormone deficiency in adulthood: A psychometric evaluation of measures of quality of life and related health outcomes. PhD thesis, 2001. University of London.
Bradley C. The 12–item Well-being Questionnaire. Diabetes Care 2000; 23(6): 1.
Plowright R, Witthaus E, Bradley C. Evaluating the 12–item Well-being Questionnaire for use in multinational trials. Qual Life Res 1999; 8(7): 650.
Pouwer F, Snoek FJ, van der Ploeg HM, Ader HJ, Heine RJ. The Well-being Questionnaire: Evidence for a 3–factor structure with 12 items (W-BQ12). Psychol Med 2000; 30: 455–462.
Pouwer F, van der Ploeg HM, Ader HJ, Heine RJ, Snoek FJ. The 12–item Well-being Questionnaire: An evaluation of its validity and reliability in Dutch people with diabetes. Diabetes Care 1999; 22(12): 2004–2010.
Bradley C, Todd C, Gorton T, Symonds E, Martin A, Plowright R. The development of an individualized questionnaire measure of perceived impact of diabetes on quality of life: The ADDQoL. Qual Life Res 1999; 8: 79–91.
Cullinan T. Visual Disability in the Elderly. Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1986.
Cronbach LJ. Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 1951; 16: 297–334.
Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS. Using Multivariate Statistics. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Bradley C. Well-being Questionnaire (W-BQ): Translation and development of a Japanese version, the W-BQ12 (Japanese). Report to Wada M, Eli Lilly, Japan KK, 1996.
Loewenthal KM. An Introduction to Psychological Tests and Scales. London: UCL Press, 1996.
Speight J, Barendse S, Bradley C. Impact of positively-vs-negatively-worded items on the factor structure of three psychosocial measures: W-BQ22, W-BQ12 and HADS. Proc Brit Psychol Soc 2000; 8(1): 21.
Bradley C, Lewis KS. Measures of psychological well-being and treatment satisfaction developed from the responses of people with tablet-treated diabetes. Diabetic Med 1990; 7: 445–451.
Fitzgerald RG, Ebert JN, Chambers M. Reactions to blindness: A four-year follow-up study. Perceptual Motor Skills 1987; 64: 363–378.
Dahlin-Ivanoff S, Sjöstrand K, Klepp KI, Axelsson-Lind L, Lundgren-Lindqvist B. Planning a health education programme for the elderly visually impaired person: A focus group study. Disabil Rehabil 1996; 18(10): 515–522.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mitchell, J., Bradley, C. Psychometric evaluation of the 12-item Well-being Questionnaire for use with people with macular disease. Qual Life Res 10, 465–473 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012540100613
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012540100613