Translating the Living with Medicines Questionnaire from English to Swedish: a validation study

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology and Pharmacy Practice
• Health Services Research
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• The Living with Medicines Questionnaire, version 3 (LMQ-3), is a valuable tool for assessing patients' experiences with medications.
• Translating and validating the LMQ-3 into Swedish is crucial for its application in a Swedish outpatient setting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To translate the LMQ-3 into Swedish.
• To validate the Swedish version of the LMQ-3 in an outpatient cohort regularly using medicines.
• To assess the construct validity of the translated questionnaire.

Main Methods:

• The translation process involved Phase 1 (translation and cognitive interviews for face and content validity) and Phase 2 (cross-sectional survey for validation).
• Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to analyze the 41 items of the LMQ-3.
• 779 respondents completed the online questionnaire in Phase 2.

Main Results:

• The Swedish LMQ-3 demonstrated adequate construct validity, with most items loading onto their original domains.
• Minor differences were observed compared to the originator instrument, specifically with three items related to life impact, planning, and prescription access.
• The validated questionnaire can serve as a person-centered measure of medicine burden.

Conclusions:

• The Swedish translation of the LMQ-3 was successfully validated in a cohort of regular medicine users.
• The instrument is suitable for measuring the burden of medicines from a patient's perspective.
• Further test-retest reliability studies are recommended to assess score stability for longitudinal use.