title: A short multilingual quality of life questionnaire--practicability, reliability and interlingual homogeneity.
abstract: International cooperative clinical trials require a multilingual quality of life questionnaire. The 'International Society for Chemo- and Immunotherapy' therefore designed a study to develop and test a 'health accentuated' quality of life questionnaire in the eight languages spoken in this society. The objective was to examine practicability, reliability and interlingual homogeneity. Versions of the questionnaire in Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Kroatian, Polish, Romanian and Slovakian have been prepared. The results are based on data of 1,104 adult patients. They demonstrate that the developed questionnaire is practicable. Patients need 10-15 min to answer it, usually without assistance. The proportion of missing values is for all but two questions less than 3%. The questionnaire also found high acceptance reflected by only 2.7% refusals. It is reasonably reliable in each language. Interlingual homogeneity could be shown by demonstration of strong structural similarities between the different versions using multidimensional scaling, factor analysis and comparison of mean profiles.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Boltzmann-Institute for Leukaemia Research and Haematology, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tüchler
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernhart
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brugiatelli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chrobak
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Franke
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herold
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Holowiecki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ihle
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jaksic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors