Search

Patients’ experiences of immunosuppressive treatment, including their perception of adverse effects, influences their quality of life and may be a trigger for poor adherence. The Medication Experience Scale for Immunosuppressants (MESI) questionnaire was designed in German to evaluate patients’ experiences of immunosuppressive drugs. The objective of this study was to validate the MESI in French. The MESI was transculturally adapted and validated in French-speaking transplant recipients according to international guidelines. Statistical analysis was performed using R version 3.2.3, and the psychometric properties of the MESI were determined using the psy R package. Validation was performed in 164 kidney, liver, lung, and heart transplant recipients (aged 55.4 ± 13.1 years, 62.8% males, years since transplantation 7.5 ± 7.9). The MESI displayed good psychometric characteristics (intra-class correlation coefficient 0.854, Cronbach’s α 0.79 (95% confidence interval 0.74–0.83, Kappa coefficient 0.30–0.76). There was an association between the MESI score, family status, and the transplanted organ (p

International audience; Background Renal transplantation is considered as the treatment of ă choice for patients with end-stage renal disease. Health-related quality ă of life (HRQoL) of renal transplant recipients (RTR) is very important ă to assess, especially during the first year after transplantation. To ă provide new evidence about the suitability of HRQoL measures in RTR ă during the first post-transplant year, we explored the internal ă structure, reliability and external validity of a French specific HRQoL ă instrument, the Renal Transplant Quality of life Questionnaire Second ă Version (RTQ V2). ă Methods The data were issued from the French multicenter cohort of renal ă transplant patients followed during 4 years (EPIGREN). The HRQoL of RTR ă was assessed five times (at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after ă transplantation) with the RTQ V2, a specific instrument consisting of 32 ă items describing five dimensions. Socio-demographic information, ă clinical characteristics and HRQoL (i.e., RTQ V2 and SF-36) were ă collected. For the five times, psychometric properties of the RTQ V2 ă were compared to those reported from the reference population assessed ă in the validation study. ă Results Three hundred and thirty-four patients were enrolled. The ă proportions of well-projected items, item-internal consistency, ă item-discriminant validity, floor and ceiling effects, Cronbach's alpha ă coefficients and item goodness-of-fit statistics were satisfactory for ă each dimension at the five times of the study. The suitability indices ă of construct validity were higher than 90 % for each time ă (minimum-maximum: 90.8-97.4 %). The external validity was less ă satisfactory, with a suitability indices ranged from 46.7 % at M1 to ă 66.7 % at M12. However, the discrepancies with the reference population ă (mainly for the gender) appeared logical considering the scientific ă literature on HRQoL of RTR during the first post-transplant year and may ă not compromise the external validity. ă Conclusion These results support the validity and reliability of the RTQ ă V2 for evaluating HRQoL in RTR during the first post-transplant year, ă and confirm that the RTQ V2 is a useful tool to assess the HRQoL ă precociously after transplant.