[.ca] Quality of Life: Assessment, Analysis, and Interpretation (ISBN 0471968617)

clear introduction including validation and analysis:
Fayers and Machin have written a book that can be appreciated by clinicans, regulators and statisticians. It explains why quality of life is important in medical research. It describes the methodology used to design and validate survey instruments along with the many specialized statistical techniques used to determine sample size and analyze the results from such survey instruments. Important concepts of measurement scales, validity and reliability are clearly presented. Five common generic instruments are discussed in chapter 1 as are six disease specific ones. They also describe instruments designed to measure specific aspects of a person's quality of life including hospital anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain and levels of disability. This book does not skim over the statistics. Statistical techniques including Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis and logistic regression are covered in Part B "Developing and Testing Questionnaires". Analysis of variance and covariance, longitudinal data analysis, graphics, missing data methods and quality adjusted survival methods are all covered in Part C "Analysis of QoL Data". In Part D on "Practical Aspects and Clinical Interpretation" the statistical issues in clinical trials specific to quality of life endpoints are discussed. These include sample size considerations, p-values, multiple endpoints, equivalence studies, effect size and meta-analysis. The specific instruments described in the text are presented in the appendices. This is the right book to go to first when you need to learn how to do quality of life research. It contains a detailed bibliography of the relevant literature.