Using the modified Delphi method to research the influencing factors of long-term health-related quality of life in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms after endovascular treatment.

Background: The purpose of this study was to use the modified Delphi method to identify the influencing factors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) after endovascular treatment.

Methods: A modified Delphi method to obtain expert consensus on the content of potential influencing factors of HRQoL in patients with UIAs treated by endovascular intervention was employed. The research team consists of three neuroradiologists and one epidemiologist from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University. They randomly selected 21 well-known experts in cerebrovascular disease diagnosis and treatment as participating experts. The importance of the indicator is based on the 5-Likert scale. The standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), mean ( ), and minimum and maximum scores of each indicator were calculated. The consistency was described by Kendall coefficient of concordance with a value < 0.05 indicating that the expert consistency was high.

Result: Twenty-one and 18 questionnaires were responded in 2 rounds, with effective response rates of 85.7% and 100.0%, respectively. The average authoritative coefficient (Cr) of all 21 experts was 0.88, familiarity with the indicators (Cs) was 0.82, and the judgment basis of the indicators (Ca) was 0.94. Eventually, the values of arterial puncture hematoma, hyperlipidemia, gender, marital status, and hospitalization for other diseases were lower than 3.5; CV for marital status and gender was higher than 0.35. The Kendall coefficient of concordance in the first round was 0.19 ( < 0.001), and the second round was 0.15 ( < 0.001).

Conclusion: In this study, the factors affecting the recovery of HRQoL after endovascular treatment in patients with UIAs were analyzed by the modified Delphi method, which provided a valuable evidence for the clinical management and daily life guidance for UIAs patients.