Authors: Xu, W.¹; Collet, J-P.²; Shapiro, S.³; Lin, Y.⁴; Yang, T.⁴; Wang, C.⁴; Bourbeau, J.¹

Source: The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 13, Number 2, February 2009 , pp. 181-189(9)

Publisher: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Abstract:

SETTING: Although the St George's Respiratory Questionnaires in Mandarin-Chinese (SGRQ-MC) have been used in China, few data are available on the translation and adaptation process, psychometric properties and clinical meaning. It is therefore difficult to adequately evaluate the equivalence of this instrument in Chinese populations.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of a culturally translated SGRQ-MC, and to estimate clinically important differences (CID) for the SGRQ in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in China.

DESIGN: SGRQ was translated into Mandarin using standardised forward and backward translation procedures. Health status and clinical data were collected at baseline in 491 patients with stable COPD and again after 1 week in 131 randomly selected patients. All patients were followed up monthly and assessed during exacerbations and at 1 year.

RESULTS: The SGRQ-MC showed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity and known-group validity. Responsiveness was shown by significant changes in SGRQ-MC scores between stable stage and exacerbation (P < 0.0001). The estimated CID for the total score ranged from 3.1 (95%CI −0.3-6.5) to 7.7 (95%CI −1.7-17.2).

CONCLUSION: This SGRQ-MC is a reliable, valid and responsive instrument for quality of life evaluation in COPD patients in China. As it is culturally and clinically equivalent to other versions, measures can be compared among countries.

Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); health-related quality of life (HRQL); clinically important difference (CID); psychometric properties; St George's respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ)

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada; and Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, Montreal Chest Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada 2: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada; and Child & Family Research Institute, Children's and Women's Health Center, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 3: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada 4: Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Publication date: 2009-02-01

More about this publication?

• The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease publishes articles on all aspects of lung health, including public health-related issues such as training programmes, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, epidemiology, intervention studies and health systems research. The IJTLD is dedicated to the continuing education of physicians and health personnel and the dissemination of information on tuberculosis and lung health world-wide.

  Certain IJTLD articles are selected for translation into French, Spanish, Chinese or Russian. They are available on the Union website

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Internal Medicine
• By this author: Xu, W. ;  Collet, J-P. ;  Shapiro, S. ;  Lin, Y. ;  Yang, T. ;  Wang, C. ;  Bourbeau, J.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers