Introducing the Body-QoL®: A New Patient-Reported Outcome Instrument for Measuring Body Satisfaction-Related Quality of Life in Aesthetic and Post-bariatric Body Contouring Patients

Objective To develop a new patient-reported outcome instrument (PRO) to measure body-related satisfaction quality of life (QoL). Methods Standard 3-phase PRO design was followed; in the first phase, a qualitative design was used in 45 patients to develop a conceptual framework and to create preliminary scale domains and items. In phase 2, large-scale population testing on 1340 subjects was performed to reduce items and domains. In phase 3, final testing of the developed instrument on 34 patients was performed. Statistics used include Factor, RASCH, and multivariate regression analysis. Psychometric properties measured were internal reliability, item-rest, item-test, and test–retest correlations. Results The PRO-developed instrument is composed of four domains (satisfaction with the abdomen, sex life, self-esteem and social life, and physical symptoms) and 20 items in total. The score can range from 20 (worst) to 100 (best). Responsiveness was 100 %, internal reliability 93.3 %, and test–retest concordance 97.7 %. Body image-related QoL was superior in men than women ( p