Validity and Reliability of Tamil translated University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire for Head and Neck Cancers.

Background: Quality of life is an important outcome measure used both in research and patient care across all cultural healthcare settings.

Objective: This study is aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of interviewer-administered Tamil translated University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (Version 4) in a setting with low literacy.

Methods: The study was done in a tertiary care teaching institute in Puducherry, South India. The translation was done by using 'forward-backward translation method.' A hundred subjects diagnosed with head and neck cancer (HNC) were interviewed before the initiation of treatment. The Tamil version of University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (UWQOL) questionnaire was validated using the Tamil version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) version. Inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability was also assessed. Item-total correlation and Cronbach alpha were calculated for assessing validity and internal consistency respectively.

Results: In the Tamil version of UWQOL, social-emotional subscale was more affected than physical subscale. The domains such as mood, anxiety, and pain were most affected. The subscale scores were significantly different between those with early and late cancer. Tamil version of UWQOL showed moderate correlation with WHOQOL-BREF. The Tamil version of UWQOL had good test-retest and inter-rater agreement. Item-total correlation for the subscales was >0.80. The internal consistency of the Tamil Questionnaire was acceptable with Cronbach Alpha of 0.69.

Conclusion: The Tamil version of UWQOL questionnaire is a short, valid and reliable for HNC patients of low literacy.