Search

Objective: The living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (LCOPD) scale was developed in the United Kingdom and the United States to assess the quality of life (QoL) of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The scale was shown to be well accepted by patients, to be unidimensional, and to have very good psychometric properties. This article reports on the adaptation of the measure for use in representative Southern European (Italian and Spanish) and Eastern European (Russian) languages., Study Design and Setting: The same methodology was used in each country: translation panels were held to produce new language versions. These were then tested with patients to ensure face and content validity. Finally, test-retest postal surveys were conducted to establish internal consistency, reproducibility, and construct validity., Results: Few problems were found in translating the LCOPD, and patient interviews indicated that the measure was considered relevant and easy to complete. The validation surveys showed that the new versions of the LCOPD were consistent, reproducible, and had good construct validity. The psychometric properties of the new versions were similar to those found for the original U.K. and U.S. versions., Conclusion: The study was successful in adapting the LCOPD for use in Southern and Eastern European languages., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Asthma Life Impact Scale (ALIS) is a disease-specific measure used to assess the quality-of-life of people with asthma. It was developed in the UK and US and has proven to be acceptable to patients, to have good psychometric properties, and to be unidimensional., Objective: This paper reports on the adaptation and validation of the ALIS for use in representative Southern European (Italian) and Eastern European (Russian) languages., Methods: The ALIS was translated for both cultures using the dual-panel process. The newly translated versions were then tested with asthma patients to ensure face and content validity. Psychometric properties of the new language versions were assessed via a test?re-test postal survey conducted in both countries., Limitations: It is possible that some cultural or language differences still exist between the different language versions. Further research should be undertaken to determine responsiveness. Further studies designed to determine the clinical validity of the Italian ALIS would be valuable., Results: Linguistic nuances were easily resolved during the translation process for both language adaptations. Cognitive debriefing interviews (Russia n=9, male=11.1%, age mean (SD)=55.4 (13.2); Italy n=15, male=66.7%, age mean (SD)=63.5 (11.2)) indicated that the ALIS was easy to read and acceptable to patients. Psychometric testing was conducted on the data (Russia n=61, age mean (SD)=40.7 (15.4); Italy n=71, male=42.6%, age mean (SD)=49.5 (14.1)). The results showed that the new versions of the ALIS were consistent (Russian and Italian Cronbach's alpha=0.92) and reproducible (Russian test-re-test=0.86; Italian test-re-test=0.94). The Italian adaptation showed the expected correlations with the NHP and the Russian adaptation showed strong correlations with the CASIS and CAFS and weak-to-moderate correlations with %FEV1 and %PEF. In both adaptations the ALIS was able to distinguish between participants based on self-reported general health, self-reported severity, and whether or not they were hospitalized in the previous week.