title: Translation and validation of quality of life scale, the brief version.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and Services Hospital, Lahore.
authors.forename: Muhammad Nasar Sayeed
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Muhammad Saleem
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Akhter
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayub
authors.forename: Sumira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: Naeem Ullah
authors.initials: NU
authors.lastname: Laghari
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D010154:Pakistan; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014944:World Health Organization