Background. Measurement of health-related quality of life (QOL) has become significant because includes such dimensions as physical and psychological health, social relationships, environment. QOL and individual’s perceptions of his/her own health has distinctive peculiarities among the rural population; therefore, they need to be further investigated.

The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the WHOQOL-100 (World Health Organization Quality of Life-100) questionnaire and to evaluate QOL among the population in a rural community.

Material and methods. The study population were randomly selected 150 Kaltinėnai men and 263 women aged 24–77 examined in 2006 by the self-administered WHOQOL-100 questionnaire (the response rate was 61%). The validity was evaluated by Pearson’s correlation coefficients, while the reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The working score was standardized to a range from 0 to 100. The factor analysis was used for testing the construct validity of the WHOQOL-100.

Results. The convergent validity proved that the correlations between items inside the domain were high (level of independence r = 0.50 and spirituality r = 0.50). The reliability estimate of internal consistency based on Cronbach’s alpha was in the range of 0.80–0.94. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed a five-factor structure of the WHOQOL-100. The scores of the domains decreased with age among both men and women. Men aged <35 to ≥65 years scored lower in the level of independence and spirituality domains, and women had lower scores in physical, independence and social relationships domains.

Conclusions. These results disclosed suitability of the WHOQOL-100 questionnaire to assess quality of life among the Lithuanian rural community. Age and sex have a major impact on the assessment of QOL.

Keywords: WHOQOL-100, rural community, quality of life, validity, reliability