Development and validation of sinhala version of the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) for assessment of quality of life among cirrhotics

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Chronic liver disease (CLD) has a negative impact on patient quality of life (QOL). The Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) is a validated tool which measures the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) among cirrhotics. CLDQ is easy to administer, measures six domains of QOL; abdominal symptoms, fatigue, systemic symptoms, activity, emotional functions and worry. It shows good correlation with severity of CLD. Aims: To develop and validate a Sinhala version of the CLDQ (sCLDQ). METHODS: A standard method of forward and back-translation by bilingual translators was used to develop the sCLDQ. Pilot testing were done with relevant adaptations, considering differences in culture and language. The final version was self-administered to stable CLD patients without significant co-morbidities, together with the WHO BREF Sinhala version (validated for patients of any disease), for comparison. sCLDQ was re-administered 4 weeks later to study its internal consistency and reliability. The sCLDQ validation was assessed by Cronabach's alpha, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Pearson's correlation coefficient RESULTS: Forty eight patients participated in the validation process. The item total correlations of sCLDQ varied from 0.30 to 0.82 (except one item number 0.15). Overall Cronabach's alpha was 0.92. Re-administration of sCLDQ to 15 patients yielded an ICC of 0.54 (p = 0.02). There was a significant correlation (Pearson's r = 0.34; p = 0.03) between sCLDQ and WHO BREF. CONCLUSIONS: sCLDQ was reliable and valid and would be a useful tool to assess QOL of cirrhotic patients in Sri Lanka.