Swedish translation and validation of the Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory-8

Parotidectomy for benign salivary gland tumours may result in postoperative sequelae affecting health-related quality of life. No validated Swedish disease-specific instrument for postoperative symptom burden after parotid surgery has been previously available.

To translate and validate the Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory-8 for Swedish-speaking patients (SwPOI-8).

A total of 108 adults who had undergone parotidectomy for benign disease at least six months previously were included. The SwPOI-8 was developed using forward-backward translation. Psychometric evaluation included internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity assessed against the established patient-reported outcome measures.

All SwPOI-8 items were completed by all respondents. The mean total score was 6.4 ± 5.2 (range 0-31). Internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach's α = 0.75). Test-retest reliability was good, assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.87), with substantial agreement for the total score based on weighted kappa (κ = 0.74). Moderate correlation was observed with the Postoperative Global Impairment Scale, while correlations with general patient-reported outcome measures were weak.

The SwPOI-8 demonstrates satisfactory reliability and validity as a disease-specific measure of postoperative symptom burden after benign parotid surgery, supporting its use in clinical follow-up, research and quality assessment.