This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

BeautyQoL questionnaire valid, reliable in assessing cosmetic procedures, physical appearance

The BeautyQoL questionnaire displayed validity and reliability as an international instrument to specifically measure response to cosmetic procedures and physical appearance, according to study results.

Researchers conducted a multiphase study of healthy adults in 13 countries, which included 16 languages. In phase 1, clinical psychologists conducted face-to-face interviews with 309 participants in 10 countries, addressing the effects of cosmetic products and physical appearance on quality of life (QoL). The interviews were used to identify recurrent themes and to generate questions for the BeautyQOL questionnaire.

In phase 2, an acceptability study was conducted with 874 participants from 13 countries. The participants were asked to comment on any aspects of the questionnaire that they felt were irrelevant or needed improvement. In phase 3, 3,231 participants from 13 countries completed four questionnaires: the BeautyQoL, a clinical checklist for the skin, 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and a short sociodemographic questionnaire. Six hundred fifty-two participants retook the BeautyQoL questionnaire 8 days later. Psychometric properties, construct validity, reproducibility, and internal and external consistency were primary outcome measures.

In the 16 languages, general acceptability of the BeautyQoL was very good, with a low rate of “no” answers. Principal component analyses identified five dimensions that explained 76.7% of the total variance: social life, self-confidence, mood, energy and attractiveness, which led to the final version of the BeautyQoL questionnaire consisting of 42 questions. BeautyQoL scores significantly correlated with all SF-36 scores except for physical function.

“Internal consistency was high [Cronbach (alpha) coefficients, 0.93-0.98],” the researchers reported. “Reproducibility at 8 days was satisfactory in all dimensions.

“Although the results of this study confirm the interest and international validity of the BeautyQoL instrument, the next step … is to stimulate further studies that will use the BeautyQoL instrument to assess the QoL of subjects, such as in clinical trials, case-control studies and cohort studies.”

Disclosure: Researcher Yolaine de Linares is employed by L’Oréal Research.