Development and Preliminary Validation of a Quality of Life Scale for Living Solid Organ Donors

BACKGROUND: Identifying the impact of living organ donation on donor quality of life (QoL) is crucial for tailored health care support. However, specific and validated instruments for this purpose remain scarce. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop and validate a modular-design QoL scale for living solid organ donors. METHODS: We recruited liver and kidney donors from 2 Chinese hospitals. After generating items via literature review and donor interviews, item selection employed the Delphi method, cognitive interviews, and item analysis. Psychometric properties were assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, along with tests of internal consistency (Cronbach's α) and split-half reliability. RESULTS: The item analysis was performed on 223 liver/kidney donors (mean age = 46.2), while the psychometric analysis included 563 (mean age = 45.0) donors. The Living Organ Donor QoL scale includes a common module, as well as liver donor-specific and kidney donor-specific modules. Exploratory factor analysis of the common module yielded a 30-item structure encompassing 7 factors, demonstrating acceptable construct validity. These 7 factors were subsequently categorized into 4 domains, a structure that was further validated by a second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's α of the 7 facets ranged from 0.601 to 0.891. Cronbach's α values for the liver-specific and kidney-specific donor modules were 0.806 and 0.891, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The Living Organ Donor QoL scale comprises a common module, 4 domains (encompassing 7 facets and 30 items), and 2 donor-specific modules (liver specific and kidney specific, with 5 items each), all of which exhibit acceptable psychometric properties.