Reliability and validity of a disease-specific quality of life tool in Nigerian patients with heart failure

Background: Heart failure results in varying limitation in activities of daily living, and consequently on the individual's quality of life. There is a thus a need for a reliable and valid tool to assess HRQoL in Nigerian patients. Aims and Objectives: To determine the health-related quality of life of Nigerian patients with heart failure using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), its validity and reliability, and its relationship between to disease severity as defined by the NYHA class. Materials and Methods: 106 consecutive stable participants diagnosed with HF were recruited and studied. The MLHFQ was self-administered by recruited participants and NYHA class was determined by clinical evaluation. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was subsequently carried out. Results: The mean age (SD) of the subjects was 56.8 (13.4) years. 41.6% of HF subjects had suboptimal HRQoL in varying degrees with a median score of 19. The MLHFQ was found to be reliable exhibiting high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient - 0.928), similarly high for each of the subscale domains and there was a significant relationship between the MLHFQ and the NYHA class (rho: 0.7706; P < 0.001), a finding that also validates the MLHFQ. Conclusion: HRQoL evaluation in Nigerian participants with HF using the MLHFQ should be considered in routine practice as it is a reliable and valid assessment with possible significant clinical utility.