2.3.2. World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF Assessment Instrument (WHOQOL-BREF)

The Italian version of the WHOQOL-BREF was used to assess QoL [32,33]. The WHOQOL-BREF is a short version of the WHOQOL-100, developed by the WHO for use in situations in which time is restricted and respondent burden must be minimized, such as in epidemiological surveys. It is a 26 items self-rating questionnaire, and a person-centered instrument, giving scores to overall QoL and its four dimensions: physical health (e.g., sleep quality, energy and tiredness), psychological health (e.g., positive emotion, self-esteem, personal beliefs), social relationships (e.g., social support and sexual activity), and environment (e.g., climate, transportation, and healthcare assistance). Items ask respondents to rate their QoL during the last two weeks and each of them are rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Similarly to the Italian validation study and to the original version of the questionnaire [29,30], internal consistencies for the WHOQOL-BREF were satisfactory, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.57 for social relationships and 0.79 for physical health. Reliability for the global score of the WHOQOL-BREF was good (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88).
