OBJECTIVES: To explore the applicability of the environment-based quality of life (EBQOL) scale in QOL evaluation of general population in China.

METHODS: 802 respondents were treated and then surveyed with EBQOL scale, and the feasibility, ceiling effect, reliability and validity of the measurement results were analyzed.

RESULTS: For the feasibility, completion time for the scale was 1.75±1.01 min, and finishing rate was 100%. In the ceiling effect, there was remarkable ceiling effect on Water quality (34.91%) and Social life (65.21%). The scale's internal consistency Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.57, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.62. According to the validity analysis, the two principal components were extracted by factor analysis, which accounted for 54.93% of total variance. After the maximum variance rotation, two common factors were generated, which was almost the same as the theory structure assumption of scale. Pearson correlation coefficient of each dimension score and the total score of the scale is higher than 0.6 except for Social life dimension.

CONCLUSIONS: EBQOL scale shows comparatively well reliability and validity in evaluating the QOL of Chinese general population, but individual items need to be further perfected.