Objectives To validate the cross-national psychometric properties of the Mental Health Quality of Life questionnaire (MHQoL) and to develop an open-source toolbox for its scoring, transformation and presentation. Design Secondary analysis of data from a multicentre international randomised controlled trial (EMPOWER).
Setting Workplace settings in small-sized and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public sector organisations in Finland, Spain and the UK. Participants The sample included 564 employees: 122 from Finland, 114 from Spain and 328 from the UK.
Most were white-collar workers in SMEs or public organisations, mainly in public administration, manufacturing, health/life sciences or higher education. Women were the majority (56%–91% across countries), and mean age ranged from 43 to 48 years.
Interventions No intervention was delivered for this analysis; data were drawn from baseline assessments. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcomes were internal consistency and construct validity of the MHQoL, evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha, measurement invariance testing and multilevel analyses of associations between MHQoL dimensions and its visual analogue scale (VAS).
BMJ Open published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 13 May 2026.
The item focuses on Cross-national validation of the MHQoL: psychometric evaluation and open-source tools for assessing mental health quality of life.
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