%0 Journal Article
%T The application of the drug user quality of life scale (DUQOL) in Australia
%A Carlos Zubaran
%A Jonathan Emerson
%A Rishi Sud
%A Elham Zolfaghari
%A Katia Foresti
%J Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1477-7525-10-31
%X A sample of 120 participants from inpatient and outpatient treatment facilities completed a series of questionnaires, including the DUQOL and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Parameters investigated in this study included the demographic characteristics of the sample, internal structure, and convergent validity. Correlations between the DUQOL scale scores and the scores of the WHOQOL-Bref test were investigated via Pearson product-moment correlation analyses.The English version of the DUQOL attained a significant overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.868. The factorial analysis of the DUQOL identified one principal factor that accounted for 28.499% of the variance. Convergent validity analyses demonstrate significant correlations (p < 0.01) between the DUQOL scores and the scores of all four dimensions of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire.This study demonstrates that the DUQOL constitutes a reliable research instrument for evaluating quality of life of substance users in Australia.The field of quality of life (QoL) measurement has been evolving as a formal discipline with structured theoretical foundations and a specific methodology for over 30 years [1]. Quality of life has become increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure in treatment studies and health service research [2]. The evaluation of QoL is also widely used in clinical trials and in observational studies of health and disease with the aim of evaluating interventions as well as adverse effects of treatment and the impact of the disease process itself [3].According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being [4]. Yet, the conceptual boundaries of QoL has been re-examined in order to include additional elements such as sociocultural conditions, as well as factors contributing to mental and physical health, which ideally will transcend the rather circumscribed dichotomy of the health-di
%K Quality of life
%K Questionnaires
%K Substance-related disorders
%K Validation studies
%K Australia
%U http://www.hqlo.com/content/10/1/31