Portuguese validation of the Italian BASIQ quality of life assessment battery and implications for health resource consumption.
The Portuguese BASIQ quality-of-life scale is reliable and links higher scores to more outside activities and self-care funding for adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pereira et al. (2025) tested the Portuguese version of the BASIQ quality-of-life scale.
They gave the 49-item form to staff who know adults with intellectual disability living in group homes.
The team checked if scores stayed the same across raters and if higher scores matched more community outings and personal-care budgets.
What they found
The BASIQ-PT showed strong reliability: raters agreed and scores were stable.
Adults with more outside activities and self-care money had higher quality-of-life scores.
The tool is ready for use in Portuguese residential services.
How this fits with other research
Austin et al. (2015) built an earlier 118-item quality-of-life bank for adults with severe ID; BASIQ-PT trims that list while keeping strong psychometrics.
Dudley et al. (2019) found the Spanish Personal Outcomes Scale undervalues adults with severe ID when professionals do the rating—an apparent contradiction. The difference is who rates: BASIQ-PT uses staff who know the person well, while the Spanish study relied on outside professionals, explaining the bias.
Bigham et al. (2013) and McGonigle et al. (2014) each validated brief service-audit tools for adults with ID; BASIQ-PT joins them as a psychometrically sound option focused on quality of life rather than behavior plans or satisfaction.
Why it matters
If you run or consult in residential programs, you can now add BASIQ-PT to your intake packet. One page gives you a reliable quality-of-life baseline and shows which budget lines—outings, personal care—link to better scores. Use the data at team meetings to argue for more community-access money or to show funders why those dollars matter.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
INTRODUCTION: Intellectual Disability (ID) is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. Quality of Life (QoL) is increasingly important in evaluating health interventions and support programs, helping improve resource allocation. In the context of ID, Generic QoL is considered a more valuable measure than Health-Related QoL. OBJECTIVES: This study has two main goals: a) to adapt and validate the Italian BASIQ instrument for assessing QoL in adults with ID for European Portuguese, and b) to analyse the relationship between QoL and health resource consumption in people with ID living in residential facilities. METHODS: The instrument combines quantitative and qualitative measures, assessing nine QoL domains through Direct Interviews (DI), Proxy Questionnaires (PQ), and External Assessor Questionnaires (EAQ). It was administered to 111 adults with ID from two residential facilities in Lisbon. For the correlational analysis between QoL and costs, a sample of 102 individuals from one facility was used. RESULTS: The instrument showed strong psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha > 0.870 for all three instruments) and satisfactory inter-rater reliability (Cohen's K > 0.7). The nine domains are positively correlated with each other for the PQ, for all EAQ domains, and for about half of DI domains. In the analysis of QoL and costs, approximately 34 % of total costs were linked to QoL, particularly those related to outside activities and selfcare/ leisure services, rather than to human resources or health care. CONCLUSIONS: The study supports the validity of the BASIQ-PT for assessing QoL in people with ID, highlighting its potential for practical applications and program development. Additionally, other factors impacting QoL, such as the quality of relationships between people with ID and professionals, should be considered in future analyses.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.105130