The reliability and validity of Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire-Arm in Turkish patients with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer

Özet

Objectives: This study aims to adapt Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire-Arm (LYMQOL) into Turkish and to test its reliability andvalidity in Turkish patients with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer.Patients and methods: Between June 2015 and November 2015, the Turkish LYMQOL-Arm was obtained using forward-backwardtranslation method and administered to a total of 135 female patients (mean age 51.8±9.8 years; range, 31 to 82 years) with upper limblymphedema with European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-QoL Breast Cancer-specific version (EORTC QLQ-BR23)and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast-4 (FACT-B+4) questionnaires. A test-retest interval of seven-days was used to assessthe reliability. The validation studies were carried-out by means of construct-validity using Spearman’s rank correlation-coefficient. Internalconsistency and test-retest-reliability were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and intra-class correlation-coefficient (ICC), respectively.Results: 135 patients completed the questionnaire with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer completed the questionnaires. Themean lymphedema duration was 21.1±28.7 (median: 6) months. Internal consistency and reliability of the Turkish LYMQOL-Arm was goodwith Cronbach's alpha (0.88-0.90) and test-retest ICC (0.45-0.71). External construct validity was highly confirmed by expected correlationswith comparator scales, EORTCQLQ-BR23 and FACT-B+4 (p<0.01).Conclusion: The Turkish version of the LYMQOL-Arm is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating QoL in female patients with upper limblymphedema related with breast cancer