Validation of the Spanish version of the IVI_C VRQoL in children from 8 to 18 years old

Purpose: To validate the Spanish version of the Impact of Vision Impairment for Children (IVI_C), a vision-related quality of life (VRQoL) questionnaire, using Rasch Analysis. Methods: A translation and adaptation of the English IVI_C test was performed according to the standards published in PedsQL. The IVI_C Spanish version of the test was administered by email to 101 Sant Joan de Déu Hospital patients who were invited to respond twice, with a minimum interval of two months. The age of the patients ranged from 8 to 18 years. Statistical software SPSS 19.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.) was used to perform the statistical analyses to test the internal consistency of the scale, the test-retest, the intraclass correlation consistency and the Rasch Analysis. Results: Results ranging from good to excellent were obtained for the internal consistency of the scale, the testretest and the intraclass correlation, depending on the scale used, and Rasch Analysis validated to simplify the original test. The statistical analysis of the 24 original items was carried out, and the 6 items that provided almost no contribution to the overall score were removed. Thus, 18 out of the 24 items in the original test were selected. Conclusion: The Spanish version of the IVI_C QoL test with 18 items is a valid tool to assess the quality of life of patients with visual loss who do not have additional disabilities.
Peer Reviewed
Postprint (published version)