The Long-Term Conditions Questionnaire (LTCQ) is a 20-item patient reported outcome measure (PRO measure or PROM).
The LTCQ was designed and developed to understand the impact of long-term health conditions on people’s lives, and to find out what support those people want or need. The LTCQ is validated for use both in health and social care settings. It was developed through an extensive process of qualitative and cognitive interviews and can be used both in research (including clinical studies) and in clinical practice, with the potential to inform person-centered service provision.
A long-term condition (LTC) is any health issue that has lasted, or will last, for at least 12 months. LTCs include memory problems, depression and other mental health conditions as well as physical health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. The LTCQ is a patient-reported outcome measure for assessing the overall impact of living with long-term health conditions, including multi-morbidity.
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The LTCQ was designed and developed by researchers at the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) at the University of Oxford and the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent, with support by the Department of Health (Policy Research Programme) and NIHR (CLAHRC Oxford).
An initial conceptual framework was developed through a review of the literature and in-depth interviews with professional stakeholders.
The 20 items of LTCQ were developed through in-depth patient interviews to generate content, and items were refined with lay and professional stakeholders. A translatability assessment was conducted to further refine the items.
A larger-scale validation study among primary care and social care recipients (n=1200+) in England demonstrated the LTCQ’s measurement reliability and validity of its broad construct, ‘living well with LTCs’. A second study validated the LTCQ in people with memory problems recruited through memory clinics.
The LTCQ encompasses traditional domains of PROMs (e.g. role functioning, social participation) as well as domains that have more recently emerged as important for living well with LTCs (e.g. treatment burden, confidence to self-manage illness).
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Scoring the LTCQ is a very straightforward of the summation of individual item scores, with higher scores indicating higher health-related quality of life. Further guidance is available.
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The LTCQ is to date validated for pen and paper completion. Careful migration to a digital delivery format (for example screen based device) can be authorised. Please contact us for advice.
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The researchers are continuing the validation of the LTCQ for specific patient cohorts such as dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Please contact us for updates and further details.
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The initial and ongoing research of the LTCQ is funded by NIHR as part of the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) – Oxford. The Oxford team collaborated with the Quality and Outcomes of person-centred care policy Research Unit (QORU) at the University of Kent.
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