The Serbian QOLIE-AD-48: translation, cultural adaptation, and preliminary psychometric evaluation

The goals of the work described in this article were to translate and adapt into Serbian the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory for Adolescents (QOLIE-AD-48), and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the translation.

Translation/backtranslation, cultural adaptation, and pretesting were performed first. For validity, internal consistency, and sensitivity testing, the Serbian version was administered to a sample of 67 adolescents with epilepsy.

All subscales (Epilepsy Impact, Memory/Concentration, Attitudes toward Epilepsy, Physical Functioning, Stigma, Social Support, School Behavior, and Health Perceptions) contributed significantly to the summary measure. Mean scores for the subscales ranged from 75.4 to 91.3, and showed a tendency to decrease as illness severity increased. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.92 for the entire questionnaire.

The QOLIE-AD-48 Serbian version is a valid and reliable instrument for health-related quality-of-life assessment in youths with epilepsy. It can be administered in 15 minutes, and can be used in clinical practice, as well as in quality-of-life research.