Objective: To assess the validity of VEINES-QOL/Sym, a patient-reported questionnaire to evaluate quality of life and symptoms in patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT).
Study design and setting: Psychometric study within the Venous Thrombosis Outcomes (VETO) Study, a prospective cohort study of long-term outcomes after DVT. A total of 359 English- and French-speaking patients with acute, objectively diagnosed DVT were recruited at seven hospitals in Quebec, Canada. The VEINES-QOL/Sym questionnaire, a 26-item patient-reported measure that generates separate summary scores for symptoms (VEINES-Sym) and quality of life (VEINES-QOL) was evaluated for acceptability, reliability, validity, and responsiveness in VETO Study subjects.
Results: Standard psychometric tests confirmed the acceptability (missing data, item endorsement frequencies, floor and ceiling effects), reliability (internal consistency, item-total and inter-item correlations, test-retest), validity (content, construct, convergent, discriminant, known groups), and responsiveness to clinical change of the VEINES-QOL/Sym in patients with DVT.
Conclusion: The VEINES-QOL/Sym is a practical and scientifically sound patient-reported measure of outcomes that was developed using gold-standard methods. VEINES-QOL/Sym is valid and reliable for use as a measure of quality of life and symptoms in patients with acute DVT and provides a rigorous tool to allow more comprehensive evaluation of outcomes in clinical trials and epidemiological studies of patients with DVT.