Taiwanese Chinese translation and validation of the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis 31 (QUALEFFO-31)

Background/PurposeCurrently, Taiwanese Chinese version of a disease-specific health-related quality of life questionnaire for osteoporosis is not available. The purpose of this study was to translate and test the reliability and validity of the Taiwanese Chinese version of the Quality of Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO-31).MethodsThe QUALEFFO-31 was translated from the original English to Taiwanese Chinese. In this study, the translation procedure followed the guidelines described by Beaton et al. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to examine the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. The internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's α; Pearson's correlation was used to assess convergent and discriminant validity; the Mann Whitney U test was used to examine known group validity.ResultsThe ICC for the test-retest reliability ranged from 0.77 to 0.91; Cronbach's α for pain, physical function, and mental function domains were 0.85, 0.74, and 0.79, respectively. For the convergent and discriminant validity, the correlation coefficients of score of each item with score of pain domain and of other domains were 0.72–0.90 and 0.26–0.43, respectively; the physical domain, 0.19–0.68 and 0.00–0.45; the mental domain, 0.53–0.71 and 0.11–0.38.ConclusionThe Taiwanese Chinese version of the QUALEFFO-31 is reliable and valid. We recommend this tool for evaluating participants with low bone mass in Taiwan. Further tests should be conducted to confirm the use of this questionnaire in clinical practice.