Cross-Cultural Validation of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Quality of Life in Korea

Abstract

Patients' responses to quality-of-life questionnaires are dependent on the cultural milieu. The aims of this study were to translate the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Quality of Life questionnaire, which was developed in the West, into Korean and to validate the translated questionnaire in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Translation of the original questionnaire was performed according to accepted linguistic validation guidelines. Korean patients had no difficulty understanding the questions. Data from the translated questionnaire were well correlated with results from the SF-36 questionnaire and reflected the stress status of the patients as measured on the Perceived Stress Scale. Some questionnaire items seemed, on first analysis, to be problematic in this subset of patients, but these results may relate, in part, to cultural differences between Korea and the West. We conclude that the translated questionnaire is reliable and offers an accurate measure of quality of life for Korean patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Quality of life of patients with irritable bowel syndrome in Korea

“…We translated both questionnaires into Korean and back into English to confirm that the translation was appropriate and evaluated their usefulness in a preliminary test using patients with IBS. This test confirmed the discriminant validity of the bowel symptom questionnaire, as was done for the IBS-QOL questionnaire in a previous linguistic validation study [7]. This questionnaire included the Rome II criteria and nine symptoms supportive of IBS diagnosis, viz., abdominal discomfort; pain or cramps; hard or lumpy stools; loose or watery stools; straining during a bowel movement; having to rush to the toilet for a bowel movement; a feeling of incomplete bowel movement; passing mucus (white material) during a bowel movement; abdominal fullness, bloating or swelling; passing gas; heartburn or chest pain; feeling full soon after starting a meal; passing urine frequently; nausea.…”

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Diagnosed by Glucose Hydrogen Breath Test in Post-cholecystectomy Patients

“…The questionnaire form included the Rome III criteria and additional questions with regard to severity of bowel symptoms, which has been validated in other studies. 11,12 A total of 13 bowel symptoms were asked; abdominal discomfort/pain or cramps, hard or lumpy stools, loose or watery stools, straining during a bowel movement, having to rush to the toilet for a bowel movement (urgency), tenesmus, mucus in stool, passing mucus during a bowel movement, abdominal fullness/bloating or swelling, passing gas (flatus), heartburn or chest pain, feeling full soon after starting a meal, passing urine frequently, and nausea. The severity of symptoms was evaluated by the total symptom score, which was defined as the sum of the symptom frequency and bothersomeness scores.…”

Psychometric Properties of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Quality of Life Scale in Turkey

“…In the study of Park et al [17] it is determined that there is a positive correlation between the IBS-QOL scale and SF-36 scale (p<0.05), especially the correlation coefficients of social function, pain and general health (r>0.4) are high.…”

“…The validation study by Park et al [17] was carried out on 103 IBS patients. According to this study, it is determined that the Cronbach alpha value in the subscales varies between 0.69 and 0.97, and in the general scale the Cronbach alpha value is 0.97.…”