Linguistic Validation of the Turkish Version of the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory - Head and Neck Cancer Module

Abstract

Background: The use of patient symptom reports withfrequent symptom assessment may be preferred overthe more commonly used health-related quality of lifequestionnaires.Aims: We sought to linguistically validate the Turkishversion of the M.D. Anderson Symptom InventoryHeadand Neck module (MDASI-HN) patient reportedoutcome questionnaire.Study Design: Validation study.Methods: Following standard forward and backwardtranslation of the original and previously validatedEnglish MDASI-HN into a Turkish version (T-MDASIHN),it was administered to patients with head and neckcancer able to read and understand Turkish. Patientswere then cognitively debriefed to evaluate their understandingand comprehension of the T-MDASI-HN.Individual and group responses are presented using descriptivestatistics.Results: Twenty-six participants with head and neckcancer completed the T-MDASIHN and accompanyingcognitive debriefing. Overall, 97 percent of the individualTMDASI-HN items were completed. Averagerecorded time to complete the 28 item TMDASI-HNquestionnaire was 5.4 minutes (range 2-10). Averageoverall ease of completion, understandability, and acceptabilitywere favorably rated at 1.0, 1.1, and 0.2,respectively, on scales from 0 to 10. Only 5 of the 26of participants reported trouble completing any singlequestionnaire items, namely the "difficulty remembering"item for 3 individuals.Conclusion: The T-MDASI-HN is linguistically validwith ease of completion, relevance, comprehensibility,and applicability and it can be a useful clinical and researchtool.