ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1574241
Do we need two hammers in our toolbox? An empirical note about the potential redundancy of measuring subjective quality of life
Provisionally accepted
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Norway
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Background: Scales for the measurement of subjective quality of life (SQoL) and psychological distress are often used as if they measure different underlying concepts. This assumption is addressed in the present study by examining the discriminant validity between a set of items measuring SQoL and both the 2-item version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) and the 5-item version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-5).Methods: The present study is based on data (n=1599) from a baseline data collection which was carried out as part of the 'Students' psychological health over time' (SPOT), a study that was carried out among Norwegian university students. Data were examined by means of a bifactor analytic framework. The SQoL instrument was compared in separate analyses against the PHQ-2 and the HSCL-5.Results: Psychometric indices derived from the bi-factor models suggested that the SQoL instrument and the PHQ-2/HSCL-5 were essentially unidimensional. Overlap between scales was further confirmed by the finding that the associations between PHQ-2/HSCL-5 and a set of baseline correlates were similar to associations between the SQoL instrument and the same set of correlates.The SQoL instrument and the PHQ-2/HSCL-5 measure similar aspects in Norwegian university students. Combined with evidence from other studies, our findings suggest that using the SQoL instrument in addition the PHQ-2 or HSCL-5 may be redundant.
Keywords: Measurement, Depression, Quality of Life, psychological distress, Patient health questionnaire, Hopkins symptom checklist
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Smith, Knapstad and Aarø. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Otto R.F. Smith, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Norway
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