Psychometric characteristics of the Serbian version of the Licester Cough Questionnaire in sarcoidosis patients

Abstract

Introduction: Cough is frequent symptom in sarcoidosis and there are no specifi c tools for measurement of its severity in Serbia. Aim: The goal of this study was to translate and validate the Serbian version of the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) in a population of sarcoidosis patients. Methods: After the LCQ forward-backward translation process, in the cross-sectional study in 275 (180 female) sarcoidosis patients Serbian version of the LCQ was administered together with other standardized instruments for measurement of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs)-symptoms of dyspnea (assessed by MRC and Borg scales) and fatigue (measured by Fatigue Assessment Scale and List of Daily Activities), and patients' health status (assessed by generic tool-15D). Pulmonary function tests (spirometry and diff using capacity for carbon monoxide) were also measured. Results: Serbian LCQ version showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of its diff erent scores ranged between 0.901 for physical domain and 0.951 for the total score). Concurent validity assessed by correlations of all LCQ scores with other PROs and pulmonary function tests was very good, since all these correlations were statistically signifi cant. Conclusions: Our results confi rmed that the Serbian version of LCQ is a valid instrument to monitor the infl uence of chronic cough on quality of life in sarcoidosis patients.