Psychometrics of chronic liver disease questionnaire in Chinese chronic hepatitis B patients

Table 3 Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the chronic liver disease questionnaire (n = 460)

Items	Item-scale correlation (Spearmanγ)
	AB	FA	SY	AC	EM	WO
Abdominal symptoms
1. Abdominal bloating	0.821	0.40	0.42	0.38	0.33	0.22
5. Abdominal pain	0.791	0.41	0.56	0.39	0.35	0.30
17. Abdominal discomfort	0.911	0.52	0.57	0.47	0.46	0.33
Fatigue
2. Tiredness or fatigue	0.46	0.781	0.48	0.42	0.53	0.37
4. Feel sleepy during the day	0.23	0.611	0.30	0.27	0.30	0.23
8. Decreased strength	0.45	0.791	0.50	0.64	0.52	0.41
11. Decreased energy	0.46	0.791	0.50	0.62	0.65	0.42
13. Drowsiness	0.37	0.761	0.43	0.42	0.50	0.31
Systemic symptoms
3. Bodily pain	0.61	0.47	0.711	0.40	0.46	0.33
6. Shortness of breath	0.46	0.50	0.661	0.49	0.42	0.30
21. Muscle cramps	0.35	0.31	0.591	0.36	0.28	0.21
23. Dry mouth	0.32	0.35	0.641	0.26	0.38	0.31
27. Itching	0.35	0.31	0.651	0.29	0.28	0.23
Activity
7. Not able to eat as much as you would like	0.37	0.49	0.35	0.781	0.41	0.28
9. Trouble in lifting or carrying heavy objects	0.41	0.54	0.49	0.841	0.38	0.28
14. Bothered by a limitation of the diet	0.45	0.53	0.43	0.731	0.44	0.28
Emotional function
10. Anxiety	0.36	0.57	0.46	0.43	0.811	0.53
12. Unhappiness	0.34	0.50	0.36	0.39	0.801	0.44
15. Irritability	0.33	0.53	0.42	0.41	0.781	0.43
16. Difficulty in sleeping at night	0.30	0.44	0.39	0.32	0.701	0.33
19. Mood swings	0.36	0.51	0.42	0.35	0.771	0.54
20. Difficulty in falling asleep at night	0.33	0.38	0.40	0.35	0.671	0.35
24. Depression	0.39	0.58	0.48	0.43	0.801	0.58
26. Problems with concentration	0.36	0.54	0.43	0.36	0.731	0.48
Worry
18. Worries about the impact of the liver disease	0.19	0.32	0.30	0.24	0.47	0.781
22. Worries that symptoms will develop into major problem	0.33	0.45	0.38	0.31	0.53	0.891
25. Worries that the condition is getting worse	0.33	0.41	0.38	0.31	0.53	0.881
28. Worries about never feeling any better	0.31	0.39	0.34	0.30	0.50	0.831
29. Availability of a liver for transplant	0.19	0.15	0.24	0.18	0.22	0.352

Convergent validity:

¹The hypothesized item-scale correlations ≥ 0.40;

²correlations < 0.40. Discriminant validity: The hypothesized item-scale correlations are higher than the alternative ones. AB: Abdominal symptoms; FA: Fatigue; SY: Systemic symptoms; AC: Activity; EM: Emotional function; WO: Worry.