Quality of life and motor impairment in ALS: Italian validation of ALSAQ.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the validity and reliability of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis assessment questionnaire (ALSAQ) in an Italian cohort of ALS patients and to further characterize the relationship between motor impairment and quality of life (QoL) in ALS.


METHODS
Seventy-six patients completed the Italian version of ALSAQ-40 and ALSAQ-5. To verify test-retest reliability, 30 patients were revaluated after 3 months. The medical outcome study short form 36 (MOS SF-36) questionnaire and revised ALS functional rating scale (ALSFR-R) scale were used to assess Italian ALSAQ-40 construct validity. The limb muscles' Medical Research Council (MRC) score and forced vital capacity (FVC) were used to measure the degree of motor impairment.


RESULTS
The Italian ALSAQ-40 showed a very good internal consistency (all subscales Cronbach's alpha>0.86) and a good construct validity as shown by the patterns of correlation between the subscales and SF-36 (resp. ALSFRS-R) scores. ALSAQ-5 showed a positive correlation with the corresponding ALS patient total score and subscale scores of the ALSAQ-40 (Spearman's correlation coefficient>0.73). The emotional functioning subscale did not correlate with any motor impairment measures.


CONCLUSIONS
Italian ALSAQ-40 and ALSAQ-5 psychometric properties are reliable and similar to those showed by the original English version. We observed emotional aspects to be distinct from physical involvement.
Palmieri
A
A
Department of Neurosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. arianna.palmieri@unipd.it
Sorarù
G
G
Lombardi
L
L
D'Ascenzo
C
C
Baggio
L
L
Ermani
M
M
Pegoraro
E
E
Angelini
C
C
D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D020820:Dyskinesias / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors