Validation of the Russian version of the Quality of Life-Rheumatoid Arthritis Scale (QOL-RA Scale).

Purpose: To translate the English version of the Quality of Life-Rheumatoid Arthritis Scale (QOL-RA Scale) into Russian, test the reliability and validity of the Russian version and compare the scaling assumptions, reliability, and validity of the English, Spanish and Russian versions.

Materials/methods: The development of a Russian version of the Quality of Life-Rheumatoid Arthritis Scale (QOL-RA Scale) involved translating the English version of the instrument into Russian, linguistic adaptation, 50 face-to-face interviews with outpatients with definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and testing the reliability and validity.

Results: The QOL-RA Scale, an 8-item scale, took about 3 minutes to administer. Psychometric analysis revealed that the psychometric attributes of English, Spanish and Russian questionnaires are satisfactory.

Conclusions: The Russian version of the QOL-RA scale is a reliable and valid measure of RA-specific QOL.