Validation of the University of Washington quality of life questionnaires for head and neck cancer patients in India.
Quality of life (QOL) is a multidimensional construct capturing the subjective wellbeing of patients in physical, emotional, functional and social domains. Available work on post treatment QOL have only been made in western literature and less in Indian literature.


OBJECTIVE
To translate the UW-QOL into both Hindi and Marathi and psychometrically validate the translation in HandN cancer patients in Indian population.


METHODS
A prospective study was done at the Tata Memorial Hospital for patients who were treated for H and N cancers.


METHODS
147 patients were enrolled from January to April 2005. The study was carried out in two phases. Patients were given translated versions of the UW-QOL and EORTC QOL questionnaires pre-operatively, 15 days post-operatively and then three months post-operatively.


RESULTS
Both the Hindi and Marathi translations had strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.7971 and 0.7839). UW-QOL composite scores correlated well with the global questions on overall QOL in both the Hindi (r=0.69) and Marathi (r=0.66) translations and also with T-stage. QOL scores were worse three months post-operatively than pre-operatively and for patients undergoing surgery that violated the mucosa. A strong correlations was observed (r>0.50) between all similar domains on the UW-QOL and EORTC HandN35 except the saliva item on the Marathi translation, where r< 0.50, but P-values were significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The Marathi and Hindi versions of the UW-QOL appear to be valid and reliable instruments for assessing the QOL in Indian population and will be a vital tool for achieving greater insight into the short- and the long term QOL.
D'cruz
A K
AK
Head and Neck Service, Department of Surgery, Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr. E. Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai, India. adcruz@vsnl.com
Yueh
B
B
Das
A K
AK
McDowell
J A
JA
Chaukar
D A
DA
Ernest
A W
AW
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014861:Washington