title: Development and validation of the korean version of expanded prostate cancer index composite: questionnaire assessing health-related quality of life after prostate cancer treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although the quality of life (QoL) of prostate cancer (PCa) patients is a major issue, there is no unified and useful methodology for assessing QoL. The Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) is a globally used tool to measure QoL after PCa treatment that comprises urinary, bowel, sexual, and hormonal domains. Acknowledging the need for such a tool applicable to Korean PCa patients, we translated EPIC into Korean and validated the new version.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Korean version of EPIC was devised by translation, back-translation, and reconciliation. Subsequently, we randomly selected 153 patients with localized PCa treated with radical perineal prostatectomy (67, 43.8%), radical retropubic prostatectomy (19, 12.4%), laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (12, 7.8%), robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (36, 23.5%), and high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation of the prostate (19, 12.4%) and asked them to complete EPIC. Reliability was assessed by test-retest correlation and Cronbach's alpha. Validity was assessed by factor analysis, interscale correlation, and correlation with Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Prostate (FACT-P).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Test-retest correlation and Cronbach's alpha were high in each of the domains (0.92, 0.91, 0.76, 0.84 and 0.86, 0.84, 0.92, 0.83, p<0.0001). Interscale correlation among the domains was low (r<0.37), which indicated that EPIC is composed of proper domains. Interscale correlation between the function and bother subscales was high (0.94, 0.81, 0.84 and 0.80, p<0.0001). EPIC domains had low correlation with FACT-P, permitting complementary use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Korean version of EPIC was developed by a proper process, as evident by its high reliability and validity. Therefore, it is a reliable, comprehensive, systematic method that evaluates QoL in Korean patients after PCa treatment. Furthermore, it can be adapted as an objective methodology for research globally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Jin
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Jung Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soo Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Tae Heon
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Deok Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Sung Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee