Electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire-Pelvic Floor: Italian cultural adaptation and face validity.

Introduction: Electronic questionnaires offer invaluable advantages over paper-based ones. The aims of this study were to make available to Italian clinicians a culturally adapted version of the multidimensional electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire-Pelvic Floor and to test face validity and factorial analysis for the Urinary section.

Methods: The original English-language version of electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire-Pelvic Floor was cross-culturally adapted to the Italian language.

Web search behavior and information needs of people with multiple sclerosis: focus group study and analysis of online postings.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and their family members increasingly seek health information on the Internet. There has been little exploration of how MS patients integrate health information with their needs, preferences, and values for decision making. The INtegrating and Deriving Evidence, Experiences, and Preferences (IN-DEEP) project is a collaboration between Italian and Australian researchers and MS patients, aimed to make high-quality evidence accessible and meaningful to MS patients and families, developing a Web-based resource of evidence-based information starting from their information needs.

What is a good death? Health care professionals' narrations on end-of-life care.

The present study explores how health professionals evaluate care at the end of life and what they consider to be a good death. We conducted four focus groups with 37 health professionals and used a grounded theory-based approach to analyze the transcripts of the discussions. A lack of organization, training, formalized procedures, and communication with dying persons and their families emerged.

The living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease scale was successfully adapted for use in Southern European (Italian and Spanish) and Eastern European (Russian) cultures.

Objective: The living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (LCOPD) scale was developed in the United Kingdom and the United States to assess the quality of life (QoL) of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The scale was shown to be well accepted by patients, to be unidimensional, and to have very good psychometric properties. This article reports on the adaptation of the measure for use in representative Southern European (Italian and Spanish) and Eastern European (Russian) languages.

International development of the patient-reported outcome indices for multiple sclerosis (PRIMUS).

Background: The Patient-Reported Indices for Multiple Sclerosis (PRIMUS) comprises a suite of three scales for assessing symptoms, activity limitations, and quality of life in multiple sclerosis (MS). It was developed in the UK and has been shown to have excellent psychometric properties. This study describes the adaptation of eight language versions for Canadian English, Canadian French, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and US English.

International development of the Unidimensional Fatigue Impact Scale (U-FIS).

Objective: The 22-item Unidimensional Fatigue Impact Scale (U-FIS) provides an index of the impact of fatigue on patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The objective is to produce eight new language versions of the U-FIS: Canadian-English, Canadian-French, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and US-English.

Methods: The U-FIS was translated via two translation panels.

Experts' opinions on the role of liver biopsy in HCV infection: a Delphi survey by the Italian Association of Hospital Gastroenterologists (A.I.G.O.).

Background/aims: Liver biopsy represents the gold standard to establish a diagnosis in all liver patients, but its current position in chronic viral hepatitis is questioned. We aimed to create a consensus on best practice of use of liver biopsy in the management of chronic HCV infection.

Methods: We applied the Delphi method to 12 clinical scenarios of chronic HCV infection, to assess the extent of agreement (consensus measurement) and to resolve disagreement (consensus development) on the appropriateness of liver biopsy.