title: Taiwanese Chinese translation and validation of the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis 31 (QUALEFFO-31).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Currently, Taiwanese Chinese version of a disease-specific health-related quality of life questionnaire for osteoporosis is not available. The purpose of this study was to translate and test the reliability and validity of the Taiwanese Chinese version of the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO-31).
  
  
  METHODS
  The QUALEFFO-31 was translated from the original English to Taiwanese Chinese. In this study, the translation procedure followed the guidelines described by Beaton et al. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to examine the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. The internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's α; Pearson's correlation was used to assess convergent and discriminant validity; the Mann Whitney U test was used to examine known group validity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ICC for the test-retest reliability ranged from 0.77 to 0.91; Cronbach's α for pain, physical function, and mental function domains were 0.85, 0.74, and 0.79, respectively. For the convergent and discriminant validity, the correlation coefficients of score of each item with score of pain domain and of other domains were 0.72-0.90 and 0.26-0.43, respectively; the physical domain, 0.19-0.68 and 0.00-0.45; the mental domain, 0.53-0.71 and 0.11-0.38.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Taiwanese Chinese version of the QUALEFFO-31 is reliable and valid. We recommend this tool for evaluating participants with low bone mass in Taiwan. Further tests should be conducted to confirm the use of this questionnaire in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Hungkuang University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yi-Chan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Rong-Sen
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ken N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Ching-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jau-Yih
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tsauo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D014175:Translating
keywords: QUALEFFO-31; Taiwanese Chinese version; quality of life; translation; validation