RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF THE SWALLOW QUALITY OF LIFE QUESTIONNAIRE

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to translate the Swallow Quality of Life Questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) into Turkish and to test its reliability and validity among patients with neurogenic swallowing disorders. Methods: One hundred and five patients (mean age= 57±15.4 years, mean weight= 69.5±16.3 kg, mean height=162.8±22.4 cm) completed the Turkish version of the SWAL-QOL (T-SWAL-QOL) and short form of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHO QOL-BREF). The internal consistency, test-retest reliability and criterion validity of T-SWAL-QOL as psychometric analysis were explored. Reliability was estimated using tests of internal consistency and test– retest reliability. The correlation between T-SWAL-QOL and WHO-QOL-BREF was calculated to evaluate criterion validity. Results: The internal consistency of T-SWAL-QOL was found to be high with 0.88 Cronbach’s alpha value for test and 0.91 Cronbach’s alpha value for retest. General burden, eating duration, eating desire and social subscales were found to have good test-retest reliability (r=0.696, r=0.790, r=0.787, r=0786, p<0.001; respectively) and, food selection, fear of eating, sleep, fatigue, communication and mental health were found to have excellent test-retest reliability (r=0.832, r=0.833, r=0.841, r=0.839, r=0.883, r=0.847, p<0.001; respectively). A weak/moderate correlation was found between the T-SWAL-QOL and WHO-QOL-BREF (p<0.05). Discussion: The T-SWAL-QOL was shown to be a valid and reliable questionnaire in dysphagia evaluation. This study will contribute to solve the problem about the lack of a scale to measure the dysphagia specific quality of life in Turkey.