IQOL: translation & reliability for use with urinary incontinence patients in Thailand

Urinary incontinence is consistently associated with an adverse effect on the quality of life (QoL) for patients. The I-QOL is a self-report quality-of-life measure specific to urinary problems that can be used to assess the impact of urinary incontinence and urinary problems (such as overactive bladder without incontinence) and their treatment. The objectives of the present study were to develop and test the reliability of a Thai version of the Incontinence Quality of Life Questionnaires (IQOL).

The I-QOL was formally translated from the original version to the Thai language with Permission. The translation process included forward translation by 2 translators. Cultural and linguistic modifications ofbothforward versions were done by a group of urologists who had extensive experience in the management of urinary incontinence. Another two Thai-English translators performed the back translation into English. Enrolled subjects included urinary incontinence patient and normal subjects were asked to complete the translated versions of I-QOL and repeated the same two weeks apart for test-retest analysis. Reliability was determined from Cronbach's alpha (reliability coefficient). Pearson's correlation was used to assess test-retest reliability.

A 22 items questionnaire was developed. Sixty patients with urinary incontinence and fifty normal subjects were enrolled into the present study. Mean ages (SD) of patients with incontinence and controlled groups were 52.42(13.54) and 48.22(10.27) years. Of the 60 patients with urinary problems, 15(13.6%) had stress urinary incontinence (SUI), 17(15.5%) had overactive bladder (OAB), 13(11.8%) had mixed urinary incontinence, 15(13.6%) had urge urinary incontinence from BPH. The mean scores(SD) of I-QOL in the normal group was 89.63(12.64) and 57.65(20.04) in the urinary incontinence group. Cronbach's alpha of the overall IQOL scores was 0.96. Test-retest reliability done at 2 weeks apart was 0.905.

The translated I-QOL is valid and applicable in Thais with urinary incontinence problems. I-QOL score reveals that QOL in these patients is lower than that in the normal population.