Cultural adaptation and validation of a questionnaire for use in hepatitis B patients

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Cultural adaptation and validation of a questionnaire for use in hepatitis B

patients

Authors: Ong, S. C.1; Lim, S. G.; Li, S. C.2

Source: Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Volume 16, Number 4, April 2009 , pp.

272-278(7)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

Abstract:

Summary. 

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important aspect of the overall

management of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The major challenge is to find

a valid and reliable disease-specific HRQoL instrument designed specifically for

measuring health status in hepatitis B patient. Consequently, this study was

undertaken to adapt culturally the Hepatitis Quality of Life Questionnaire

(HQLQ) and assess its suitability for use in English-speaking hepatitis B

virus-infected (HBV) patients in Singapore. Two patient focus groups were

conducted to facilitate the cultural adaptation of the HQLQ. Reliability was

assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients and intraclass correlation

coefficients. Item-to-scale correlation was assessed using Spearman's rank

correlations (Ï) between scale scores and their constituent items. Convergent

and divergent construct validities were tested in three and two a priori

hypotheses, respectively, and the correlations were assessed using Spearman's

rank correlation coefficients (Ï). The culturally adapted questionnaire was

tested in 298 HBV patients. The test-retest reliability was supported with 10 of

the 12 scales showing acceptable correlation coefficients (i.e. α > 0.7).

Item-to-scale correlations were good with most items highly correlated with

their hypothesized scales. Convergent and divergent construct validities were

supported by the presence of hypothesized correlations between the HQLQ and the

EQ-5D domains (eight of 10 sub-hypotheses for convergent construct validity and

all hypotheses for divergent construct validity were fulfilled). In conclusion,

our results showed that the culturally adapted HQLQ has good validity and

reliability, making it a potentially useful outcome measure in the evaluation of

HBV patients in Singapore