Stroke and aphasia quality of life scale in Kannada-evaluation of reliability, validity and internal consistency

Abstract

Background:Quality of life (QoL) dwells in a person's overall well-being. Recently, QoL measures have become critical and relevant in stroke survivors. Instruments measuring QoL of individuals with aphasia are apparently rare in the Indian context. The present study aimed to develop a Kannada instrument to measure the QoL of people with aphasia. Study objectives were to validate Stroke and aphasia quality of life-39 (SAQOL-39) into Kannada, to measure test–retest reliability and internal consistency.Materials and Methods:The original English instrument was modified considering socio-cultural differences among native English and Kannada speakers. Cross-linguistic adaptation of SAQOL-39 into Kannada was carried out through forward–backward translation scheme. The scale was administered on 32 people from Karnataka (a state in India) having aphasia. For a direct understanding of the subject's QoL, scores were categorized into QoL severity levels. Item reliability of the Kannada version was examined by measuring Cronbach's alpha. Test–retest reliability was examined by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).Results:Kannada SAQOL-39 showed good acceptability with minimum missing data and excellent test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.8). Value of Cronbach's α observed for four items modified in the original version was 0.9 each and the mean α of all Kannada items was 0.9, demonstrating high internal consistency.Conclusions:The present study offers a valid, reliable tool to measure QoL in Kannada-speaking individuals with aphasia. This tool is useful in a cross-center, cross-national comparison of QoL data from people with aphasia. This instrument also permits direct translation into other Indian languages as the items are culturally validated to the Indian population. This study promotes future research using the Kannada SAQOL-39.

Adaptation and validation of stroke-aphasia quality of life (SAQOL-39) scale to Hindi

“…This was comparable to Kannada-speaking population (Mean = 2.69; SD = 1.05). [ 4 ] However, it differed markedly from the Spanish-speaking (Mean = 3.75; SD = 0.86)[ 7 ] as well as English-speaking counterparts (Mean = 3.26; SD = 0.7). [ 8 ] The comparable rating of QOL in Hindi-speaking people with aphasia with another Indian population (e.g., Kannada) and marked difference with two European populations signifies that, in general, the quality of life of the population under consideration is poorer in India.…”

“…We followed the Methods used by Kiran and Krishnan[ 4 ] in the current study. Permission to adapt the original version of SAQOL-39 to Indian languages was obtained from the corresponding author of the original study.…”

“…Though the initial version (SAQOL) consisted of 53 items, subsequent to the evaluation of psychometric properties of this version, the authors reduced the number of items to 39, deriving SAQOL-39. Since its introduction, the SAQOL-39 has been adapted to several European languages (Spanish, Italian) as well as to two Indian languages (Kannada[ 4 ] and Malayalam[ 5 ]). The cross-linguistic and cross-cultural adaptation of such widely used instruments permits the comparison of QOL data across centers and nations.…”

“…Considering the potential danger in mere translation of tools from culturally and linguistically distinct populations (for instance, European and American) there have been recent attempts to adapt and validate such tools in the Indian context. [ 4 ] Yet, several languages in India experience the dearth of validated instruments to assess the QOL of people with aphasia including Hindi, the national language of the country, spoken by about 50 million people in the country. In this context, we decided to fill this lacuna by adapting and validating the original (English) version of widely used SAQOL-39[ 1 ] to Hindi.…”

Translation and adaptation of stroke aphasia depression questionnaire-10 to Hindi

“…[67] The Hindi SADQ-10 offers health-care professionals working in the community or hospital a more reliable approach in assessing the likelihood that a patient with speech or language impairment is suffering from depressed mood. It assists with the decision whether to refer a person to a specialist for advice and management of their mood problem in an Indian context.…”