title: Reliability and validity of Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey, Korean version.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey (WURSS) is a self-administered questionnaire developed in the United States to evaluate the severity of the common cold and its reliability has been validated. We developed a Korean language version of this questionnaire by using a sequential forward and backward translation approach. The purpose of this study was to validate the Korean version of the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey (WURSS-K) in Korean patients with common cold.
  
  
  METHODS
  This multicenter prospective study enrolled 107 participants who were diagnosed with common cold and consented to participate in the study. The WURSS-K includes 1 global illness severity item, 32 symptom-based items, 10 functional quality-of-life (QOL) items, and 1 item assessing global change. The SF-8 was used as an external comparator.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants were 54 women and 53 men aged 18 to 42 years. The WURSS-K showed good reliability in 10 domains, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.67 to 0.96 (mean: 0.84). Comparison of the reliability coefficients of the WURSS-K and WURSS yielded a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.71 (P = 0.02). Validity of the WURSS-K was evaluated by comparing it with the SF-8, which yielded a Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.267 (P < 0.001). The Guyatt's responsiveness index of the WURSS-K ranged from 0.13 to 0.46, and the correlation coefficient with the WURSS was 0.534 (P < 0.001), indicating that there was close correlation between the WURSS-K and WURSS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The WURSS-K is a reliable, valid, and responsive disease-specific questionnaire for assessing symptoms and QOL in Korean patients with common cold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Oriental Medical College of Daejeon University, South Korea.
authors.forename: Su-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Weechang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Yoon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: Yang-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003139:Common Cold / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014175:Translating; D014922:Wisconsin; D055815:Young Adult