Abstract

Background: The use of patient symptom reports with frequent symptom assessment may be preferred over the more commonly used health-related quality of life questionnaires.

Aims: We sought to linguistically validate the Turkish version of the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN) patient reported outcome questionnaire.

Study Design: Validation study.

Methods: Following standard forward and backward translation of the original and previously validated English MDASI-HN into a Turkish version (T-MDASI-HN), it was administered to patients with head and neck cancer able to read and understand Turkish. Patients were then cognitively debriefed to evaluate their understanding and comprehension of the T-MDASI-HN. Individual and group responses are presented using descriptive statistics.

Results: Twenty-six participants with head and neck cancer completed the T-MDASIHN and accompanying cognitive debriefing. Overall, 97 percent of the individual TMDASI-HN items were completed. Average recorded time to complete the 28 item TMDASI-HN questionnaire was 5.4 minutes (range 2-10). Average overall ease of completion, understandability, and acceptability were favorably rated at 1.0, 1.1, and 0.2, respectively, on scales from 0 to 10. Only 5 of the 26 of participants reported trouble completing any single questionnaire items, namely the “difficulty remembering” item for 3 individuals.

Conclusion: The T-MDASI-HN is linguistically valid with ease of completion, relevance, comprehensibility, and applicability and it can be a useful clinical and research tool.