A short version of a HRQoL questionnaire for Italian and Japanese patients with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis.
BACKGROUND
The available self-report questionnaire for the quality of life in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC-40) is currently validated only in the British population but it lacks an evaluation of its dimensionality.


OBJECTIVE
To validate the Italian and Japanese versions of PBC-40 and to assess the dimensionality of the original structure of PBC-40 by a confirmatory factor analysis. PBC-40 was translated to Italian and Japanese using the forward-backward method and then reviewed in focus groups in the framework of a large multicentric study.


METHODS
A sample of 290 patients with PBC (125 Italian and 165 Japanese) was administered two questionnaires previously validated for PBC-specific (PBC-40) and general quality of life (SF-36).


RESULTS
The confirmatory model failed to fit adequately the original hypothesized structure. A principal component analysis led to a seven-factor structure, with exclusion of 13 items characterized by lower load; PBC-27 questionnaire was the final instrument. The validity of the PBC-27 was supported by its strong correlation with the SF-36 scores.


CONCLUSIONS
We here propose an alternative structure of the quality of life questionnaire for PBC, namely PBC-27, which appears to be effective in detecting the impact of PBC on quality of life in Italian and Japanese patients.
Montali
Lorenzo
L
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Tanaka
Atsushi
A
Riva
Paolo
P
Takahashi
Hiroki
H
Cocchi
Claudio
C
Ueno
Yoshiyuki
Y
Miglioretti
Massimo
M
Takikawa
Hajime
H
Vecchio
Luca
L
Frigerio
Alessandra
A
Bianchi
Ilaria
I
Jorgensen
Roberta
R
Lindor
Keith D
KD
Podda
Mauro
M
Invernizzi
Pietro
P
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires