Dyspnea-12-Arabic: testing of an instrument to measure breathlessness in Arabic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop the Dyspnoea-12-Arabic (D-12-A) questionnaire and test its reliability and validity for the assessment of breathlessness in Arabic speaking patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Jordan.

Background: Breathlessness is a complex multidimensional symptom which incorporates physiology and psychology.

Methods: The D-12-A, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Quality of Life Index pulmonary version (QLI-P) were completed by 67 Jordanian patients with COPD. Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency, and Pearson product-moment correlation calculated for construct validity.

Results: The D-12-A and its sub-components ('physical' and 'affective') demonstrated excellent internal reliability (Cronbach alpha range from 0.88 to 0.91). D-12-A scores correlated significantly with other relevant outcome measures and demonstrated good construct validity.

Conclusions: The D-12-A should provide clinicians and researchers with a useful tool for the assessment of breathlessness in Arabic speaking patients with COPD.