Cross-linguistic equivalence of WHOQOL-100: a study from North India

The study examined the equivalence between Hindi and English versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL)-100 in North India. Eighty two bilingual subjects were administered the two language versions of WHOQOL-100 in a cross-over design after an interval of 1 week. More than half of item-facet correlations and one-third of Cronbach alpha values for facets were above 0.7 in both language versions. One third of facets and domain scores were significantly different in the two language versions, though these scores had high intraclass correlation coefficients (r > 0.7). Men and women had significantly different scores on < or = 25% and ill and well subjects on > or = 50% of facets and domains in both language versions and the pattern of significant differences in scores was similar in the two language versions. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested a reasonable fit for a four-factor structure (CFI = 0.82) in and across both language versions. Results suggest that Hindi and English versions of WHOQOL-100 have some equivalence but conceptual and scalar concerns remain regarding the application of a language version (of a simultaneously developed test) to subjects from another culture, even if they are proficient in the language of administration.