Translation and validation of the Japanese Version of the Quality of Recovery-15 Questionnaire.

Abstract

Patient-reported outcomes after surgery and anaesthesia have recently attracted attention. A recent systematic review and a consensus guideline recommend that patients' recovery can be adequately measured using the quality of recovery-15 (QoR-15) during the perioperative period; however, the Japanese version of the QoR-15 (QoR-15J) is not available. We aimed to translate the QoR-15 into Japanese and assess its validity. After translating into Japanese, 205 patients who underwent various types of surgery under general anaesthesia were enrolled in the study. QoR-15J was evaluated before surgery and 24h and 48h after surgery. Additionally, 30 patients answered the QoR-15J at 25h after surgery. We assessed the feasibility, reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the QoR-15J. One patient who did not undergo surgery and two patients who were discharged within 24h were excluded. One hundred and eighty-seven patients answered the QoR-15J at 24h after surgery (completion rate, 92.6%) and 183 patients with complete data were included in the final analysis. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal reliability and Spearman rank correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability were 0.84 and 0.91, respectively. The Cohen effect size for all items was 1.42. QoR-15 was translated into Japanese and the Japanese version's validity was assessed in patients undergoing various types of surgery under general anaesthesia. Our results suggest that QoR-15J is feasible, reliable, valid, and responsive.