[Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life questionnaire: English version of Qualiveen abstract].

Introduction: The Qualiveen questionnaire is a urinary disorder-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) instrument. Developed in French, the instrument's translation into English was the first step of a process leading to an HRQL questionnaire that can be used in a different culture. However, the cultural adaptation of an HRQL questionnaire is achieved only when the psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are documented.

Aim: To develop an equivalent English version of the Qualiveen questionnaire and to assess its discriminative measurement properties.

Methods: Fifty-five Canadian out-patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) completed a set of questionnaires, including the Qualiveen; the MS Quality Of Life-54 (MSQOL-54), an MS-specific HRQL questionnaire; urinary function assessment; and the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) twice at an interval of 2 to 4 weeks.

Results: The English Qualiveen proved to be test-retest reliable (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.94). Consistent with a priori predictions, we found a strong association between overall Qualiveen score and degree of incontinence (0.63), a moderate association with type of urinary symptoms (0.49), a weak association with manner of voiding (0.28) and weak or absent associations with MSQOL-54, EDSS bladder/bowel and global EDSS domains. Predictions proved to be generally accurate (weighted kappa=0.65).

Conclusion: The test-retest reliability and cross-sectional construct validity of the English version of Qualiveen are excellent and similar to the original French version. Further studies should explore Qualiveen's longitudinal validity and responsiveness.