Translation and cultural adaptation into Spanish of the Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaire

The purpose of the present study was to provide a translation into Spanish, as well as a cross-cultural adaptation, of the English version of the Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaire (LVQOL). There are currently some questionnaires designed to assess vision related quality of life in Spanish, although none of them specifically examines the quality of life of patients with visual disability.

The LVQOL consists of 25 items and examines 4 different dimensions: distance vision; mobility and ilumination; adaptation, reading and precision work, and daily life activities. The process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation was conducted following the recommendations of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes. This included, amongst other variables, a direct translation, a back-translation, and a cognitive debriefing with a small sample of patients with visual impairment. Work was supervised by an expert committee consisting of an ophthalmologist, a psychologist with expertise in Patient Reported Outcomes, and an optician-optometrist with experience in the field of low vision.

A total of 46 phrases were considered for translation of which, 41 (89.1%) had excellent equivalence, 3 (6.5%) moderate equivalence, and 2 poor equivalence. The cognitive debriefing phase showed a high degree of acceptance of the questionnaire by the sample of participants with visual impairment.

The results obtained suggest that the Spanish version of this tool is understandable for patients with visual impairment. Its properties as a measuring tool will be evaluated in a later study to determine its validity, reliability, and sensitivity to changes.