Introduction: Within the last 20 years, a large number of Health-related Quality of Life (HRQL) instruments have been developed and are increasingly being used in multi-national research and in clinical practice. In this era of international collaboration, there is a critical need for improved interpretation of HRQL studies and the confirmation of qualitative international comparability of HRQL instruments used in multi-national studies. In order to facilitate these two objectives, Mapi Research Institute has launched the development of IQOD.

Objectives: The primary objective of the IQOD project is the development of an international database that will contain data from multinational HRQL studies. Once this database is developed the following objectives can be realised. (1) Development of reference values to facilitate interpretation of scale scores and making it possible to estimate the relative burden of various medical and psychiatric conditions across populations and across disease severity's. (2) Evaluation of the qualitative international comparability of HRQL instruments used in multi-national studies. (3) Development of item banking.

Methods: During the initial phase of this project, data will be Obtained from sponsors of international studies in which linguistically valid HRQL questionnaires, provided by Mapi Research Institute, were administered. There are 13 instruments included in the initial phase of this project. The first step of the initial phase is the analysis of data from international studies where the Women's Health Questionnaire has been administered.
Results: Results of the initial phase will be presented upon completion of analysis.

Discussion: