Translation and validation of quality of life scale, the brief version.
OBJECTIVE
To translate The World Health Organization quality of life scale, WHO-QOL BREF, in Urdu and validate it.


METHODS
A descriptive study.


METHODS
Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, from July 2002 to October 2002.


METHODS
The English version of WHO-QOL BREF was translated in Urdu and later back translated. The process was checked and evaluated at each step by a translation committee comprising of group of bilingual experts. The whole process was carried out in four stages. The translated version was further evaluated statistically in three ways to check linguistic equivalence, concept equivalence and scale equivalence.


RESULTS
A significant level of equivalence was seen at all parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
This study concludes that the Urdu version of WHO-QOL BREF is a reliable and valid version to be used in our population to measure the quality of life in Pakistan.
Khan
Muhammad Nasar Sayeed
MN
Department of Psychiatry, The Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and Services Hospital, Lahore.
Akhter
Muhammad Saleem
MS
Ayub
Muhammad
M
Alam
Sumira
S
Laghari
Naeem Ullah
NU
D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D010154:Pakistan; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014944:World Health Organization