Validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Quality of Recovery-40 questionnaire

The Quality of Recovery-40 (QoR-40) is a widely-used, self-rated, and self-completed questionnaire for postoperative patients. The questionnaire is intended to elicit information from each patient regarding the quality of recovery during the postoperative period. It is noteworthy, however, that an official Korean version of the QoR-40 (QoR-40K) has not been established. The purpose of this study was to develop the QoR-40K by translation and cultural adaptation process and to evaluate the validity and reliability of the QoR-40K.

After pre-authorization from the original author of the QoR-40, the translation procedure was established and carried out based upon Beaton's recommendation to create a QoR-40K model comparable to the original English QoR-40. Two hundred surgical patients were enrolled, and each completed the questionnaire during the preoperative period, on the third day, and 1 month after surgery. The QoR-40K was compared with the visual analogue scale (VAS) and another health-related questionnaire, the Short-form Health Survery-36 (SF-36). The method of validation for QoR-40K included test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and level of responsiveness.

Spearman's correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was 0.895 (P < 0.001), and Cronbach's alpha of the global QoR-40K on the third day after surgery was 0.956. A positive correlation was obtained between the QoR-40K and the mental component summary of SF-36 (ρ = 0.474, P < 0.001), and a negative correlation was observed between QoR-40K and VAS (ρ = -0.341, P < 0.001). The standardized responsive mean of the total QoR-40K was 0.71.

The QoR-40K was found to be as acceptable and reliable as the original English QoR-40 for Korean patients after surgery, despite the apparent differences in the respective patients' cultural backgrounds.