Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, reliability, validation of King's Health Questionnaire in the Marathi language.

Abstract

Introduction: Outcome measurement is a crucial component of contemporary professional practice. Many Indian rehabilitation facilities employ the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ), but there has never been an official Marathi translation with its reliability and validity.

Materials and methods: As per the recommendations for cross-cultural validation of an outcome assessment, KHQ was translated into the Marathi language at a tertiary hospital in Pune, India. A study was conducted to assess the dependability of 123 patients from tertiary hospitals in India. The reliability of the study was assessed by two competent physiotherapists. The interrater reliability of the KHQ total scores and each item was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. To compare the interrater dependability with the findings of other investigations, the intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficient was determined.

Results: When evaluated by domain, the KHQ's standardized Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.49-0.92. All domains had reliability that was rated as moderate to strong by ICC, and the severity rating scale varied from 0.53 to 0.81. The Pearson correlation coefficient between KHQ and short form-36 (SF-36) in the majority of related areas was found to be weak to moderate, with values ranging from -0.27 to -0.53.

Conclusions: The Marathi version of the KHQ was translated and adapted for use in Marathi language-speaking Indian women with urinary incontinence complaints. It represents an important instrument for the evaluation of incontinent women in clinical research with good interrater reliability and validity with SF-36 quality-of-life measure.