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Development and refinement of the WAItE: a new obesity-specific quality of life measure for adolescents

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Abstract

Background

Few weight-specific outcome measures, developed specifically for obese and overweight adolescents, exist and none are suitable for the elicitation of utility values used in the assessment of cost effectiveness.

Objectives

The development of a descriptive system for a new weight-specific measure.

Methods

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 treatment-seeking (above normal weight status) and non-treatment-seeking (school sample) adolescents aged 11–18 years, to identify a draft item pool and associated response options. 315 eligible consenting adolescents, aged 11–18 years, enrolled in weight management services and recruited via an online panel, completed two version of a long-list 29-item descriptive system (consisting of frequency and severity response scales). Psychometric assessments and Rasch analysis were applied to the draft 29-item instrument to identify a brief tool containing the best performing items and associated response options.

Results

Seven items were selected, for the final item set; all displayed internal consistency, moderate floor effects and the ability to discriminate between weight categories. The assessment of unidimensionality was supported (t test statistic of 0.024, less than the 0.05 threshold value).

Conclusions

The Weight-specific Adolescent Instrument for Economic-evaluation focuses on aspects of life affected by weight that are important to adolescents. It has the potential for adding key information to the assessment of weight management interventions aimed at the younger population.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the advice and support of the following individuals: Cathy Brennan, Jenny Hewison, Donna Lamping, Christopher McCabe, David Meads, Jennifer Roberts, Katherine Stevens, Alan Tennant, Aki Tsuchiya and members of Academic Unit of Health Economics, University of Leeds. We would like to thank all the young people who took part in the research and the parents and staff who supported this research. The usual disclaimer applies. The work presented here is part of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded fellowship project awarded to the first author.

Funding

This study was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) doctoral fellowship awarded to Yemi Oluboyede (DFR/2009/02/101). This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

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Correspondence to Yemi Oluboyede.

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Conflict of interest

Yemi Oluboyede declares that she has no conflict of interest. Claire Hulme declares that she has no conflict of interest. Andrew Hill declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

The WAItE is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Oluboyede, Y., Hulme, C. & Hill, A. Development and refinement of the WAItE: a new obesity-specific quality of life measure for adolescents. Qual Life Res 26, 2025–2039 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-017-1561-1

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