Development and evaluation of the Japanese version of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life for patients with diabetes.

Objectives: Our objective was to undertake linguistic validation and cultural adaptation of the Japanese version of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (JP-ADDQoL) and to evaluate its psychometric properties when completed by Japanese patients with diabetes.

Methods: We followed the standard linguistic validation procedure and subsequently evaluated the reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) of the translated version by surveying 239 Japanese patients with diabetes.

Results: We translated 19 items for the JP-ADDQoL. The internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach's alpha = 0.933). In the exploratory factor analysis, four factors were extracted, and most of the items in all four factors had high loadings. Forced one-factor analysis revealed all factor loadings other than those for sex life to be >0.40 (sex life: 0.398). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit for the JP-ADDQoL.

Conclusions: The JP-ADDQoL showed adequate reliability and acceptable validity. Examining not only the impact of diabetes on a specific domain of life but also its importance for each patient leads to more accurate and individualized measurement of the patient's QoL.