ABSTRACT
Instruments of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) help us to interpret the results of treatments and health interventions. In Spain there is no HRQOL instrument specifically designed for use in patients with liver disease or to measure the effect of interventions such as liver transplantation. The Liver Disease Quality of Life (LDQOL 1.0) questionnaire is an American instrument developed for use in these patients. The aim of this study was to produce an appropriate version of this questionnaire for use in Spain. Cultural adaptation was performed in 3 phases: a) modification for use in Spain of a Hispanic version of this questionnaire supplied by the original authors; b) back-translation to English of a new version of the questionnaire and comparison with the original version in English, and c) a pilot test in a small sample of patients. In the first phase consisting of revision of the Hispanic version, the changes were mainly linguistic due to cultural and idiomatic differences. The validated Spanish version of the SF-36 was directly incorporated and items that could be of interest to local investigators were added. Few changes were made in the second phase of the process: changes involved an item on the appearance of feces and another item on taking naps. In the final phase, various changes suggested by the patients were introduced. Before applying the new version of the LDQOL 1.0 in clinical studies in Spain, its psychometric properties (its reliability, validity and sensitivity to change) must be verified in a subsequent validation study.
