Abstract
BackgroundThe objective of the current study was to translate and validate the Iranian version of the WHOQOL-BREF.MethodsA forward-backward translation procedure was followed to develop the Iranian version of the questionnaire. A stratified random sample of individuals aged 18 and over completed the questionnaire in Tehran, Iran. Psychometric properties of the instrument including reliability (internal consistency, and test-retest analysis), validity (known groups' comparison and convergent validity), and items' correlation with their hypothesized domains were assessed.ResultsIn all 1164 individuals entered into the study. The mean age of the participants was 36.6 (SD = 13.2) years, and the mean years of their formal education was 10.7 (SD = 4.4). In general the questionnaire received well and all domains met the minimum reliability standards (Cronbach's alpha and intra-class correlation > 0.7), except for social relationships (alpha = 0.55). Performing known groups' comparison analysis, the results indicated that the questionnaire discriminated well between subgroups of the study samples differing in their health status. Since the WHOQOL-BREF demonstrated statistically significant correlation with the Iranian version of the SF-36 as expected, the convergent validity of the questionnaire was found to be desirable. Correlation matrix also showed satisfactory results in all domains except for social relationships.ConclusionThis study has provided some preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of the WHOQOL-BREF to be used in Iran, though further research is required to challenge the problems of reliability in one of the dimensions and the instrument's factor structure.
Highlights
In Design and Analysis of Quality of Life Studies in Clinical Trials New York: Champan and Hall/CRC; 2002:4-15.2
The World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL)-BREF is one of the bestknown instruments that has been developed for cross-cultural comparisons of quality of life and is available in more than 40 languages
It has been adopted in the United State of America, Netherlands, Poland, Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Australia, Japan, Croatia, Zimbabwe and many more other countries [4]. It is a shortened version of the WHOQOL-100 that looks at four quality of life profiles, using all available data from the field trial version of the WHOQOL-100 [4]
Summary
In Design and Analysis of Quality of Life Studies in Clinical Trials New York: Champan and Hall/CRC; 2002:4-15.2. The WHOQOL-BREF is one of the bestknown instruments that has been developed for cross-cultural comparisons of quality of life and is available in more than 40 languages It has been adopted in the United State of America, Netherlands, Poland, Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Australia, Japan, Croatia, Zimbabwe and many more other countries [4]. It is a shortened version of the WHOQOL-100 that looks at four quality of life profiles, using all available data from the field trial version of the WHOQOL-100 [4] We selected this questionnaire because it is short and easy to use and to our best knowledge this is the first study that examines its psychometric properties in Iran employing the classical psychometric theory and methods. We thought this would allow to apply the questionnaire in both epidemiological and outcome studies and could provide an opportunity for future research works to compare quality of life among Iranian population and people living in other communities
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