Recovering Quality of Life ReQoL-10 and ReQoL-20
Recovering Quality of Life ReQoL-10 and ReQoL-20 overview
Creator and Context
Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) is a patient reported outcome measure of quality of life for people with mental health difficulties.
It was developed at the University of Sheffield by a team led by John Brazier and Anju Keetharuth, funded by the Department of Health Policy Research Programme in England, and published in 2018. It comes in a 10 item and a 20 item version. It is free for the NHS and publicly funded research, and licensed for other use through Oxford University Innovation.
Presenting Conditions
ReQoL covers seven themes identified with service users:
Activity
Hope
Belonging and relationships
Self perception
Wellbeing
Autonomy
Physical health
The physical health item is scored but sits outside the mental health total.
Administration
Self completed. ReQoL-10 has 10 mental health items plus one physical health item. ReQoL-20 has 20 mental health items plus the same physical health item. Mental health items are rated for the last week on a 5 point scale scored 0 to 4, with positively and negatively worded items. The physical health item uses a separate response set.
Desired Audience
Mental health service users aged 16 and over, across primary, secondary and tertiary care. It was designed to work across the full range of presentations, from common mental health problems through to severe, complex and psychotic disorders, and is validated in substance misuse populations. It is not intended for people with dementia or learning disabilities.
ReQoL was built with service users and measures what recovery actually means to them: hope, belonging, autonomy, doing things. It also has preference weights, which means it can generate QALYs. For any service that has to make a health economic case to a commissioner, that is a genuinely differentiating capability. ICHOM has adopted it in international standard sets for psychotic and personality disorders.
Considerations
Not valid for people with dementia or learning disabilities.
The physical health item is scored but must not be included in the total. It is an easy implementation error to make.
The developers describe the cut offs as based on the data available to date and subject to refinement, so do not present them as immutable.
Free for the NHS and publicly funded research. Commercial use requires a licence through Oxford University Innovation.
How to score the Recovering Quality of Life ReQoL-10 and ReQoL-20
Conducting the assessment
The person rates the 10 or 20 mental health items for the last week on a 0 to 4 scale, plus the single physical health item.
Interpretation
Only the mental health items are summed. ReQoL-10 scores 0 to 40 and ReQoL-20 scores 0 to 80, where higher means better quality of life. The physical health item is scored separately and is not included in the total.
ReQoL-10:
Reliable change and minimum important difference is 5 points. An increase of 5 or more is reliable improvement, a decrease of 5 or more is reliable deterioration.
Clinical range is 0 to 24. The non clinical general population range is 25 and above.
ReQoL-20:
Reliable change and minimum important difference is 10 points.
Clinical range is 0 to 49. The non clinical general population range is 50 and above.
Clinical Considerations
Use the reliable change threshold rather than reacting to small movements between reviews.
Read ReQoL alongside a symptom measure. A person can improve on quality of life while symptoms are unchanged, and that is a real and reportable outcome.
Exclude the physical health item from the total, but do not ignore it. It is often where an unaddressed problem shows up.
Recovering Quality of Life ReQoL-10 and ReQoL-20 use cases
Measuring recovery focused quality of life across all mental health presentations
Generating QALYs for health economic and commissioning cases
Routine outcome monitoring in NHS mental health services
International outcome reporting through the ICHOM standard sets
Category
General Well-being
Research Summary
Keetharuth, A. D., Brazier, J., Connell, J., et al. (2018). Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL): A new generic self reported outcome measure for use with people experiencing mental health difficulties. British Journal of Psychiatry, 212(1), 42 to 49.
Keetharuth, A. D., Bjorner, J. B., Barkham, M., Browne, J., Croudace, T., & Brazier, J. (2018). Exploring the item sets of the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) measures using factor analysis. Quality of Life Research.
Connell, J., Carlton, J., Grundy, A., et al. (2018). The importance of content and face validity in instrument development: Lessons learnt from service users when developing the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) measure. Quality of Life Research, 27(7), 1893 to 1902.
Other Assessment Guides
Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL)
Explore the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), a validated tool measuring compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among helping professionals. Learn about its administration, scoring, and applications in enhancing caregiver well-being. 
Big Five Personality Test FFM
Delve into the Big Five Personality Test, a key tool in assessing human personality across five dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. This article covers its application, scoring, and significance in psychology
Flourishing Scale
Discover the Flourishing Scale, a succinct 8-item measure of psychological well-being, assessing self-perceived success in life domains like relationships, purpose, and optimism. Ideal for those seeking insights into personal well-being and researchers in psychological health
Note on Assessment licensing
Some assessments are copyright protected and require a licence or the copyright holder's permission for clinical, commercial or digital use. Where that applies, obtaining and maintaining that permission is the responsibility of the practice or organisation using the assessment. Tacklit provides the digital administration, scoring and reporting. We do not grant, transfer or supply rights to the underlying instrument.
