title: Adaptation of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire to a second language preserves its critical properties: the Spanish version.
abstract: To test the metric proprieties of the Spanish version of the Juniper Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), we studied 116 adult asthmatic patients with a wide range of disease severity (53 patients were recruited from the respiratory outpatient department, 38 from a primary health care centre and 25 were patients admitted into hospital due to acute asthma). The patients were assessed twice, at recruitment and after 2 months. The AQLQ showed a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.78 to 0.96) and a high 2-week reproducibility (ICC = 0.82 to 0.92). Expected significant differences in AQLQ scores were observed according to disease severity as measured by symptoms, medication, use of services and recruitment setting. The cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations between AQLQ and the overall St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire were strong, moderate to strong between AQLQ and dyspnea and weak to moderate between AQLQ and FEV(1). The changes in AQLQ scores were significantly different in patients who either improved or deteriorated from those patients who remained stable (P <.0001 and P <.01, respectively, for the overall AQLQ). We conclude that the Spanish version of the AQLQ is reliable, valid and sensitive to changes.
authors.affiliation: Research Units of Respiratory and Environmental Health and Health Services, Hospital del Mar - IMIM, Doctor Aiguader 80, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. 36106@imas.imim.es
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanjuás
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Curull
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Broquetas
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Antó
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014175:Translating