Validation of a new international quality-of-life instrument specific to cosmetics and physical appearance: BeautyQoL questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE To develop a new quality-of-life (QoL) instrument with international validity that specifically assesses cosmetic products and physical appearance. DESIGN In the first phase, semidirected interviews involved 309 subjects. In the second stage, an acceptability study was performed on 874 subjects. Thereafter, we recruited a total of 3231 subjects, each of whom completed the BeautyQoL questionnaire, a clinical checklist for the skin, the generic QoL 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. A retest was performed 8 days later on a subgroup of 652 subjects. SETTING Populations in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Russia, the United States, Brazil, Japan, India, China, and South Africa, representing 16 languages. PARTICIPANTS The general adult healthy population, including women and men. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Psychometric properties, construct validity, reproducibility, and internal and external consistency. RESULTS General acceptability was very good in the 16 languages, with a very low rate of no answers. The validation phase reduced the questionnaire to 42 questions structured in the following 5 dimensions that explained 76.7% of the total variance: social life, self-confidence, mood, energy, and attractiveness. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach α coefficients, 0.93-0.98). Reproducibility at 8 days was satisfactory in all dimensions. Results of external validity testing revealed that BeautyQoL scores correlated significantly with all 36-Item Short Form Health Survey scores except for physical function. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate the validity and reliability of the BeautyQoL questionnaire as the very first international instrument specific to cosmetic products and physical appearance.