title: Adaptation of a quality of life questionnaire for Iranian patients with esophageal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evaluation of quality of life is very important in cancer patients. Esophagus-specific quality of life questionnaire (QLQ-OES18) is a disease-specific questionnaire for assessing quality of life in esophageal cancer (EC). So we aimed to translate and evaluate the reliability and validity of the QLQ-OES18 when applied to Iranian patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was designed as cross-sectional study on 62 newly confirmed EC in two referral hospital in Tehran, Iran. Reliability of the subscales was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficients. Pearson's correlations of an item with its own scale and other scales were calculated to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Clinical validity was also evaluated by known-group comparisons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7 in most subscales. All subscales met the standards of convergent and discriminant validity. Also QLQ-OES18 had discriminatory power for differentiation between patient's groups with different clinical status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide evidences that Persian version of QLQ-OES18 is a valid and reliable questionnaire when applied to a sample of Iranian patients with EC and is recommended for use in clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Manometry, Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forootan
authors.affiliation: Department of Onchology, Imam Hossein Hospital, Shahid Behehsti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tabatabaeefar
authors.affiliation: Department of Manometry, Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nakisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maghsoodi
authors.affiliation: Shaheed Rajaei Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ardeshiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Onchology, Imam Hossein Hospital, Shahid Behehsti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fatemi
authors.affiliation: Department of Onchology, Imam Hossein Hospital, Shahid Behehsti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hormat
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rahimzadeh
keywords: Esophageal cancer; QLQ-OES18; Quality of life; Reliability; Validity