Development of the Japanese version of the Manchester short assessment of quality of life (MANSA) among people with self-reported severe mental illness.

Abstract

Purpose: The Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) is a quality-of-life (QOL) instrument developed for people with mental illness. This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the MANSA for people with severe mental illness (SMI) and examine associations between individual MANSA domains and psychiatric diagnosis.

Methods: The MANSA includes 12 self-rated subjective QOL items; the overall score is their mean on a 1-7 scale. We prepared a Japanese translation and tested validity and reliability using cross-sectional survey data from 237 adults with SMI in Japan. Concurrent validity was tested in 38 respondents who also completed the WHOQOL26. The sample was randomly split for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in separate subsamples. Analyses included score distributions, validity, internal consistency, and domain-level ordinal logistic regression.

Results: The MANSA items showed the expected associations with the relevant scales and items. Although a two-factor structure was supported by EFA, the CFA fit indices were CFI = 0.86, TLI = 0.82, and RMSEA = 0.12. In the one-factor EFA solution, all factor loadings exceeded 0.40. Cronbach's alpha for all 12 items was 0.877. The schizophrenia-spectrum group had higher scores in several domains than the bipolar- and depressive-disorder groups, and symptom stability was associated with higher scores across all domains.

Conclusions: The Japanese version of MANSA showed acceptable concurrent validity and internal consistency. The proposed two-factor structure was not supported; total-score use remained reasonable, but further validation is needed. Diagnosis and symptom stability were associated with domain-specific QOL.