Exploratory factor analysis of a 16D Health-Related Quality of Life instrument with adolescents seeking help for early psychiatric symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a widely studied phenomenon in health care. This study aimed to identify which factors can be extracted from a generic 16-dimension (16D) HRQoL instrument in a sample of adolescents seeking help for early psychiatric symptoms. METHODS: Data were collected at the Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH), Finland, by an early intervention team. In total, 394 help-seeking adolescents (mean age 15.3 years, SD 2.14 years, 183 boys and 211 girls) completed a 16D HRQoL questionnaire. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis (generalized least squares method, promax rotation) identified four factors in the 16D instrument. The first factor of "psychophysiological health" included the dimensions of vitality, breathing, distress, sleeping, physical appearance, mental functioning and depression. The second factor, "physical and social health", consisted of the items discomfort and symptoms, friends and elimination. The items hearing, eating and speech were loaded on factor three, "health in somatosensory functioning". Moreover, the single item of school and hobbies was loaded on factor four, "health in functioning ability". However, the items of vision and mobility were not loaded on any factor. Since the 16D instrument was originally designed for 11-15-year-old adolescents, analysis was repeated using a subsample of this age group (n = 245). CONCLUSIONS: The results here suggest that the 16D instrument consists of four factors and forms its own latent variable structure in this specific sample of adolescents seeking help for early psychiatric symptoms. However, items such as vision, mobility and school and hobbies should be interpreted with caution as a part of the factor structure of a 16D instrument among this population.