Portuguese validation of the Italian BASIQ quality of life assessment battery and implications for health resource consumption.

INTRODUCTION

Intellectual Disability (ID) is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. Quality of Life (QoL) is increasingly important in evaluating health interventions and support programs, helping improve resource allocation. In the context of ID, Generic QoL is considered a more valuable measure than Health-Related QoL.

OBJECTIVES

This study has two main goals: a) to adapt and validate the Italian BASIQ instrument for assessing QoL in adults with ID for European Portuguese, and b) to analyse the relationship between QoL and health resource consumption in people with ID living in residential facilities.

METHODS

The instrument combines quantitative and qualitative measures, assessing nine QoL domains through Direct Interviews (DI), Proxy Questionnaires (PQ), and External Assessor Questionnaires (EAQ). It was administered to 111 adults with ID from two residential facilities in Lisbon. For the correlational analysis between QoL and costs, a sample of 102 individuals from one facility was used.

RESULTS

The instrument showed strong psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha > 0.870 for all three instruments) and satisfactory inter-rater reliability (Cohen's K > 0.7). The nine domains are positively correlated with each other for the PQ, for all EAQ domains, and for about half of DI domains. In the analysis of QoL and costs, approximately 34 % of total costs were linked to QoL, particularly those related to outside activities and selfcare/ leisure services, rather than to human resources or health care.

CONCLUSIONS

The study supports the validity of the BASIQ-PT for assessing QoL in people with ID, highlighting its potential for practical applications and program development. Additionally, other factors impacting QoL, such as the quality of relationships between people with ID and professionals, should be considered in future analyses.