Purpose: We assessed the psychometric properties of the newly developed Erectile Dysfunction Effect on Quality of Life (ED-EQoL) instrument for quantifying the effect of erectile dysfunction on quality of life.
Materials and methods: The questionnaire was assessed in a cohort of 283 men recruited from 11 centers in the United Kingdom. Internal consistency was examined by Cronbach's alpha, test-retest reliability was determined by administering the instrument on 2 occasions 2 weeks apart without treatment in the interim, construct validity was assessed by comparison with other quality of life measures and responsiveness was evaluated by comparing the change in the ED-EQoL after treatment with change in other measures.
Results: The ED-EQoL was simple to complete and captured wide variation in quality of life. It demonstrated good internal consistency and reliability, and generally correlated in an expected manner with other quality of life measures. Correlation with initial erectile function was relatively low but the change in function after treatment was reflected by the change in quality of life.
Conclusions: When assessing erectile dysfunction in clinical practice or research, it is important to consider the effect on quality of life in addition to function. To our knowledge the ED-EQoL is the first erectile dysfunction specific quality of life instrument developed and extensively validated according to accepted principles of questionnaire design. Combined with a measure of erectile function its use is recommended in routine clinical practice and in research to provide a holistic approach to the assessment of erectile dysfunction and its treatment.