Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of FACIT-AI, a New Tool for Assessing Quality of Life in Patients with Malignant Ascites.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Ascites Index (FACIT-AI). METHODS: A forward-backward translation procedure was adopted to develop the Chinese version of the FACIT-AI, which was tested in 69 patients with malignant ascites. Cronbach's α, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability were used to assess the reliability of the scale. The content validity index was used to assess the content validity, while factor analysis was used for construct validity and correlation analysis was used for criterion validity. RESULTS: The Cronbach's α was 0.772 for the total scale, and the split-half reliability was 0.693. The test-retest correlation was 0.972. The content validity index for the scale was 0.8-1.0. Four factors were extracted by factor analysis, and these contributed 63.51% of the total variance. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.591 to 0.897, and these were correlated with visual analog scale scores (correlation coefficient, 0.889; P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese version of the FACIT-AI has good reliability and validity and can be used as a tool to measure quality of life in Chinese patients with malignant ascites.

Health-related quality of life as a predictor of tuberculosis treatment outcomes in Iraq.

OBJECTIVES: To determine how tuberculosis (TB) treatment affects the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients with pulmonary TB and to identify the predictors of favourable TB treatment outcomes in Baghdad, Iraq. METHODS: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Tuberculosis (FACIT-TB), a new TB-specific quality of life instrument derived from the internationally recognized FACIT measurement system for the assessment of HRQL, was administered. The mean total and subscale scores of the FACIT-TB at baseline, end of the intensive phase, and end of TB treatment were compared. RESULTS: After the 2-month intensive phase, physical well-being, functional well-being, and the overall total scores were significantly increased (p<0.01). Furthermore, at completion of TB treatment, there were significant improvements in the overall HRQL as indicated by the FACIT-TB total score and all subscales, except social and economic well-being and spiritual well-being. In a direct logistic regression model, only the FACIT-TB total score made a statistically significant contribution towards predicting the likelihood that a patient would have a favourable TB treatment outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Therapeutic intervention had a positive impact on patient HRQL. We conclude that FACIT-TB is a reliable tool to monitor HRQL during the course of TB treatment.

Development and Psychometric Properties of a Tuberculosis-Specific Multidimensional Health-Related Quality-of-Life Measure for Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Various generic instruments exist to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with tuberculosis (TB), but a psychometrically sound disease-specific instrument is lacking. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate a multidimensional TB-specific HRQOL instrument relevant to the value of patients with pulmonary TB in Iraq with an eye toward cross-cultural application. METHODS: The core general HRQOL questionnaire is composed of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General items. A modular approach was followed for the development of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Tuberculosis (FACIT-TB) questionnaire in which a set of items assessing quality-of-life (QOL) issues not sufficiently covered by the core Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General items, but considered to be relevant to the target population, was added. Moreover, principal-component analysis was used to determine the new subscale structure of the questionnaire. RESULTS: In addition to the 27 items of the core questionnaire, a set of 20 items referring to disease symptoms related to the site of infection, adverse effects, and additional QOL dimensions such as fatigue, social stigma, and economic burden of the illness was included. Factor analysis demonstrated that the FACIT-TB construct comprised five domains. CONCLUSIONS: A rigorous method was applied in the development of the FACIT-TB measure to fully understand the impact of TB on patients' QOL. The instrument is psychometrically sound and portrays multiple important dimensions of HRQOL. FACIT-TB is relatively brief, is easy to administer and score, and is appropriate for use in clinical trials and practice.

Translation and linguistic validation of the FACT-EGFRI-18 quality of life instrument from English into Dutch.

PURPOSE: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitor 18 (FACT-EGFRI-18) is a patient-reported outcomes questionnaire developed to assess the effect of EGFRI on patients. The FACT-EGFR-18 was translated into Dutch and evaluated in order to document that the translation adequately captures the concepts of the original English-language version of the questionnaire and is readily understood by subjects in the target population. METHOD: Translation of the FACT-EGFRI-18 from English to Dutch was accomplished by employing the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) multilingual translation methodology. Ten native-speaking residents of the target country who reported EGFRI associated dermatological adverse events (dAEs) were asked to review the translation of the harmonized FACT-EGFRI-18. RESULTS: Participants generally found the Dutch FACT-EGFRI-18 easy to understand and complete. In addition, the translation retained the original meaning of the FACT-EGFRI-18 items and instructions. Based on the results of the cognitive debriefing interviews, no changes to improve clarity and comprehension of translations were identified. CONCLUSIONS: The Dutch FACT-EGFRI-18 demonstrates content validity and linguistic validity, and was found conceptually equivalent to its English source, thus confirming linguistic validation. The results suggest that the Dutch FACT-EGFRI-18 can be applied to measure dAE related health related quality of life in Dutch-speaking patients undergoing EGFRI therapy. Formal validation of the Dutch FACT-EGFRI-18 is ongoing.