The Development and Validation of a New Malay Language Psychological Quality of Life assessment (PsychQOL)

Locally designed and validated quality of life (QOL) assessments which incorporate psychological-spiritual elements, while also considering the cultural and contextual diversity of Malaysian society, are scarce. This study aimed to develop and assess the psychometric properties of a culturally-relevant Malay psychological QOL questionnaire tailored to the Malaysian context. This study also aimed to explore differences between healthy adults and psychiatric patients in terms of perception of psychological QOL. This study involved process of assessing content validity of the questionnaire item, a pilot study and conducting a field study with two different samples, namely healthy adults psychiatric patients. The analysis has focused on assessing internal consistency and construct validity through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). A total of 120 healthy adults (mean age = 34.5, SD = 6.3) and 120 psychiatric patients (mean age = 34.5, SD = 13.3) participated in this study. Internal consistencies for both healthy adults (Cronbach’s α= 0.91) and psychiatric patients (Cronbach’s α = 0.93) were excellent. For both samples, EFA analysis revealed five domains: vigour, emotional resilience, depression and anxiety, religiosity and values and social support, with minimum factor loadings ranged from 0.411 to 0.872. Item loadings for vigour and emotional resilience varied slightly for both groups. This newly designed Psychological Quality of Life (PsychQOL) questionnaire is a multidimensional factor structure with strong psychometric properties, which is suitable for both healthy and psychiatric patients. The PsychQOL offers a culturally and linguistically appropriate alternative for evaluating psychological well-being among Malaysians, particularly the Malay-speaking population. This assessment may serve as a monitoring tool while also offering insights into successful treatment approaches.