title: The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire: translation and reliability study of the Thai version.
abstract: In the past decade, increasing attention is being given to more systematic and quantitative ways to evaluate explicitly the impact of disease and medical interventions on quality of life (QOL). Pertaining to the field of oncology, two relatively new instruments--the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and the FACT-G, have received growing attention and appear to be excellent QOL instruments in clinical settings. FACT-G has already been validated and has been used in Thailand. Thus in the present study, the English version of the EORTC quality of life questionnaire (QLQ-C30) was translated into Thai and the initial descriptive statistic and scale reliability were reported. Mean score in this study of 75 cancer patients was comparable with the original report. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for multi-item scales range from 0.64 to 0.89. The validity of this translated version will be reported at a later date. The initial findings of the present study indicate that the Thai version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 is reliable. A validating process of this version is in progress with active patients accrual ongoing at present.
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
authors.forename: Thitiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sirisinha
authors.forename: Vorachai
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ratanatharathorn
authors.forename: Manmana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jirajarus
authors.forename: Suwanee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sirilerttrakul
authors.forename: Chatchawan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Silpakit
authors.forename: Ekapop
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sirachainan
authors.forename: Tawee
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanvetyanon
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013785:Thailand; D014177:Translations