Turkish Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Hamburg Quality of Life Questionnaire for Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Objective

The aim of this study is to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Hamburg Quality of Life Questionnaire in Multiple Sclerosis (HAQUAMS) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods

The study enrolled 200 patients, from whom demographic and clinical data were gathered via a patient information form alongside the HAQUAMS. Linguistic validity was established through expert review and a forward-backward translation procedure. Reliability was estimated using Cronbach′s alpha and test-retest analysis; item-total consistency and item discrimination served as indicators of intrinsic validity, whereas extrinsic validity was examined through the scale′s correlation with EDSS and other clinical and demographic variables. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to evaluate the construct validity and five-factor structure of the HAQUAMS-TR.

Results

Completing the HAQUAMS-TR itself took participants under 15 min, whereas the full face-to-face session—including the patient information form—averaged 25 min. Of the 200 participants, 131 were women and 69 were men, with a mean age of 41.45 ± 10.99; mean year of diagnosis was 2008.96 ± 7.89, mean treatment duration was 113.86 ± 85.27 months, and mean EDSS was 2.97 ± 1.70. Test-retest correlations were consistently high across subscales (0.764–0.914), as were Cronbach′s α values (0.710–0.901), and HAQUAMS subscale scores correlated significantly with EDSS (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The Turkish HAQUAMS-TR showed preliminary evidence of acceptable reliability and validity for identifying symptoms experienced by MS patients and assessing quality of life and functional status in the Turkish population. However, before broader clinical adoption, additional validation studies are needed, including comparison with an established quality-of-life scale and testing in more diverse samples.