Abstract
The objective of the present study was to translate the Kidney Disease Quality of Life -- Short Form (KDQOL-SF 1.3) questionnaire into Portuguese to adapt it culturally and validate it for the Brazilian population. The KDQOL-SF was translated into Portuguese and back-translated twice into English. Patient difficulties in understanding the questionnaire were evaluated by a panel of experts and solved. Measurement properties such as reliability and validity were determined by applying the questionnaire to 94 end-stage renal disease patients on chronic dialysis. The Nottingham Health Profile Questionnaire, the Karnofsky Performance Scale and the Kidney Disease Questionnaire were administered to test validity. Some activities included in the original instrument were considered to be incompatible with the activities usually performed by the Brazilian population and were replaced. The mean scores for the 19 components of the KDQOL-SF questionnaire in Portuguese ranged from 22 to 91. The components "Social support" and "Dialysis staff encouragement" had the highest scores (86.7 and 90.8, respectively). The test-retest reliability and the inter-observer reliability of the instrument were evaluated by the intraclass correlation coefficient. The coefficients for both reliability tests were statistically significant for all scales of the KDQOL-SF (P < 0.001), ranging from 0.492 to 0.936 for test-retest reliability and from 0.337 to 0.994 for inter-observer reliability. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was higher than 0.80 for most of components. The Portuguese version of the KDQOL-SF questionnaire proved to be valid and reliable for the evaluation of quality of life of Brazilian patients with end-stage renal disease on chronic dialysis.
Highlights
Despite the enormous advances in dialysis therapy for increasing the life expectancy of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the negative impact of the disease and its treatment affect the perception of patients regarding their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) [1], a factor that can interfere with treatment outcome
Some activities in the original version had to be replaced: “vacuum” was replaced with “sweep the floor”, and “play golf” was replaced with “walking for over an hour” since these are not regular activities for the Brazilian population
We conclude that the guidelines established by the authors’ group facilitated this stage and that the participation of patients in the panel group was fundamental for a better cultural adaptation of the original KDQOL-SF to our setting
Summary
Despite the enormous advances in dialysis therapy for increasing the life expectancy of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the negative impact of the disease and its treatment affect the perception of patients regarding their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) [1], a factor that can interfere with treatment outcome.Many efforts have been made to reduce this problem and to increase the quality of life of those who depend on dialysis. Despite the enormous advances in dialysis therapy for increasing the life expectancy of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the negative impact of the disease and its treatment affect the perception of patients regarding their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) [1], a factor that can interfere with treatment outcome. Generic questionnaires are used in general populations to assess different types of disease, permitting research about health status and comparison of the data obtained with those for the general population. Specific questionnaires assess a particular disease, population or specific problem. They are useful to determine the specific effects of a disease on daily patient life and to obtain separate scores for each dimension assessed [2,3]
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