Development and testing of the Russian version of Postoperative Quality of Recovery score — the QoR-40 and its short form — QoR-15

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. To assess the postoperative quality of recovery, patient-completed questionnaires are used in clinical practice and scientific research. OBJECTIVES. To create and test Russian versions of postoperative quality of recovery questionnaires QoR-40 and QoR-15. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Adult patients with thyroid pathology and hyperparathyroidism undergoing elective surgery were enrolled into the study. Linguistic and cultural adaptation were performed in accordance with international guidelines. The external validity of the Russian versions of the questionnaires was assessed upon the results of patients cognitive interviewing. Reliability, validity and sensitivity to changes in time of Russian versions of QoR-40 and QoR-15 were assessed. RESULTS. Overall 144 surgical patients were included in study. The external validity coefficient was 0.96 for QoR-40 and 0.94 for QoR-15. The differences in reproducibility were not significant (p > 0.05) for QoR-40 (180.5 and 184.9) and for QoR-15 (120.0 and 119.0). The Cronbach-α coefficient values were 0.92 (high internal consistency) and 0.89 (good internal consistency) for the QoR-40 and QoR-15 questionnaires, respectively. Spearman’s correlation coefficient between the Total score of the questionnaire and the Global recovery by VAS was 0.672 (p < 0.001) and 0.669 (p < 0.001) for QoR-40 and QoR-15, respectively. Patients with low level of postoperative recovery (< 70 scores according to VAS) had lower Total scores of QoR-40 and QoR-15, then patients with high postoperative recovery (≥ 70 by VAS): 165.2 vs 186.2; 98.1 vs 134.8 respectively (p < 0.001). Both tools are sensitive to changes in patients’ condition after surgery: Total scores of QoR-40 and QoR-15 were significantly lower after surgery as compared to baseline scores: 186.4 vs 181.1 by QoR-40 (p < 0.001), 133.8 vs 124.9 by QoR-15 (p = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS. The Russian versions of QoR-40 and QoR-15 are reliable, valid and sensitive tools for assessing the postoperative quality of patient recovery and may be used in both research studies and clinical practice.