Psychometric development of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Questionnaire (GSRQ) demonstrated good validity.

Objectives: To develop and validate a gastrointestinal (GI) symptom rating questionnaire for patients with luminal GI symptoms including where no diagnosis has been made.
Study Design and Setting: We developed and validated the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Questionnaire (GSRQ) in three stages: (1) item generation to identify the relevant items for scale inclusion; (2) development and piloting on patients with a known GI disorder; and (3) testing in a sample of trial patients. We examined the underlying dimensions of the scale, internal consistency, validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness.
Results: We identified four interpretable factors on the GSRQ. The GSRQ had good internal consistency (corrected item-subscale correlations between 0.4 and 0.8) and Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.7 for each subscale. Construct validity was demonstrated by modest but significant correlations with the Short Form 36 and the EQ5D index value. We demonstrated good reproducibility with intraclass correlations for test-retest scores between 0.71 and 0.77, and significant responsiveness ratios for all subscales in patients who had improved, and in two of the subscales in patients who had deteriorated.
Conclusion: The GSRQ could be a useful tool to monitor quality of life in various luminal GI conditions and where a formal diagnosis has not been made.
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