Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2018 , Vol 64 , Num 3

The reliability and validity of Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire-Arm in Turkish patients with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer

Pınar Borman 1-2 ,Ayşegül Yaman 1 ,Merve Denizli 1 ,Sevilay Karahan 3 ,Oya Özdemir 1-2
1 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medicine Faculty of Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
2 University of Hacettepe Lymphedema Practice and Research Center, Ankara, Turkey
3 Department of Biostatistics, Medicine Faculty of Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
DOI : 10.5606/tftrd.2018.2843 Objectives: This study aims to adapt Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire-Arm (LYMQOL) into Turkish and to test its reliability and validity in Turkish patients with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer.

Patients and methods: Between June 2015 and November 2015, the Turkish LYMQOL-Arm was obtained using forward-backward translation method and administered to a total of 135 female patients (mean age 51.8±9.8 years; range, 31 to 82 years) with upper limb lymphedema with European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-QoL Breast Cancer-specific version (EORTC QLQ-BR23) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast-4 (FACT-B+4) questionnaires. A test-retest interval of seven-days was used to assess the reliability. The validation studies were carried-out by means of construct-validity using Spearman`s rank correlation-coefficient. Internal consistency and test-retest-reliability were assessed using Cronbach`s alpha and intra-class correlation-coefficient (ICC), respectively.

Results: 135 patients completed the questionnaire with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer completed the questionnaires. The mean lymphedema duration was 21.1±28.7 (median: 6) months. Internal consistency and reliability of the Turkish LYMQOL-Arm was good with Cronbach's alpha (0.88-0.90) and test-retest ICC (0.45-0.71). External construct validity was highly confirmed by expected correlations with comparator scales, EORTCQLQ-BR23 and FACT-B+4 (p<0.01).

Conclusion: The Turkish version of the LYMQOL-Arm is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating QoL in female patients with upper limb lymphedema related with breast cancer. Keywords : Lymphedema Quality of life Questionnaire-Arm; lymphedema; quality of life; validity; Turkish