RESUMO
PURPOSE: To develop and assess psychometric properties of a disease-specific quality of life (QOL) assessment tool for patients with chronic uveitis. METHODS: The initial 42-item chronic uveitis-related QOL questionnaire (CUQOL) was developed by literature review, semi-structured interviews, and expert consultation. Further development and assessment of the CUQOL were performed using Classic Test Theory and Rasch analysis. RESULTS: The CUQOL version 1.0 was constructed with 28 items in five dimensions. The five subscales satisfied the requirements of unidimensionality, local independence, and threshold ordering. Cronbach's α coefficient for overall and each scale of the CUQOL 1.0 ranged from 0.75 to 0.94, with test-retest intraclass correlation ranging from 0.95 to 0.99. The CUQOL 1.0 has satisfactory convergent validity (r = 0.41-0.82), reasonable known group validity (p < .05), and good responsiveness (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: The CUQOL 1.0 is reliable and vaild for evaluating the QOL of patients with chronic uveitis.