Summary

Decline in quality of life is a fundamental problem to individuals with chronic heart failure. Sophisticated instruments for measuring subjective aspects of health status in heart failure patients are necessary for assessing changes in their quality of life. To address this issue, Drs. Gordon Guyatt, Susan Halcrow, Joel Singer, Michael Sullivan, Ernest Fallen and Sharon Nogradi at McMaster University, developed the Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire (CHQ).

The CHQ is a validated evaluative tool that measures longitudinal change over time of patients with chronic heart disease or heart failure. The CHQ distinguishes between people who have improved or deteriorated from people who have not. The questionnaire assesses dyspnea during daily activities, fatigue and emotional function.

The instrument contains 16 questions that measure both physical and emotional health. It has been licensed out worldwide and 9 validated translations are now available. The CHQ has been used in academic research to monitor patients, in clinical trials and observational studies demonstrating its reproducibility, validity and responsiveness.

To meet increasing demand for electronic versions of questionnaires, the CHQ is available in electronic format as well as in hardcopy. MILO is working closely with translation companies to review electronic conversions of all questionnaires in its library. MILO is also continuing to increase the portfolio of validated translations for questionnaires.