Development and Application of a Short-Form Questionnaire for Assessing Spiritual, Religious and Personal Beliefs Related to Quality of Life (WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF) in Portugal

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the European Portuguese version of a short-form instrument for assessing spiritual, religious and personal beliefs related to quality of life (WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF). The European Portuguese version of the WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF was completed by a heterogeneous sample of 606 participants (72.4% female), with a mean age of 46.88\xa0years, and with no religious affiliation or distinct religions (71.3% Catholic). In addition to the WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF, participants completed the Portuguese versions of the Brief Religious Coping questionnaire (Brief RCOPE), and the measure of orientation toward religion AGE UNIVERSAL I-E Scale-12. The European Portuguese version of the WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF showed satisfactory reliability (Cronbach’s alpha between 0.71 and 0.87 across domains). Confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the proposed five-domain structure. Convergent validity with the general facet on QoL was satisfactory for all domains. Spiritual QoL was significantly and positively associated with positive religious coping (r\u2009=\u2009.62, p\u2009<\u2009.001), as well as intrinsic (r\u2009=\u2009.62, p\u2009<\u2009.001) and extrinsic personal (r\u2009=\u2009.34, p\u2009<\u2009.001) religious orientation. Known-groups validity considering the strength of religious, spiritual and personal beliefs was demonstrated for Spiritual QoL, however, no significant differences were found regarding sex, age, and health status. These results offer promising support for the use of the WHOQOL-SRPB-BREF as a measure of spirituality, religion and personal beliefs related to quality of life (Spiritual QoL).