Clinical Investigations Respiration 2004;71:567–574 DOI: 10.1159/000081756 Validity and Reliability of a French Version of the MRF-28 Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire Jean-Paul Janssens a Anne Héritier-Praz b Mauro Carone e Luc Burdet c Jean-William Fitting c Christophe Uldry d Jean-Marie Tschopp b Thierry Rochat a a Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, b Centre Valaisan de Pneumologie, Crans-Montana, c Division of Pulmonary Diseases, CHUV, Lausanne, and d Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center, Rolle, Switzerland; e ‘Salvatore Maugeri’ Foundation, Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Veruno, Italy Received: October 29, 2003 Accepted after revision: April 28, 2004 Dr. Jean-Paul Janssens Centre antituberculeux Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire CH–1211 Geneva 14 (Switzerland) Tel. +41 22 372 95 46, Fax +41 22 372 99 29, E-Mail Jean-Paul.Janssens@hcuge.ch ABC Fax + 41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel 0025–7931/04/0716–0567$21.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/res For editorial comment see p. 551 This study did not receive any financial support. There is no conflict of interest related to the data presented. Key Words Quality of life, health-related W Respiratory insufficiency, chronic W Mechanical ventilation, home Abstract Background: Evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in chronic respiratory failure (CRF) is an impor- tant issue for evaluating the impact of treatment. Objec- tives: To elaborate a French version of the Maugeri Foun- dation Respiratory Failure Questionnaire (MRF-28) dis- ease-specific HRQL questionnaire and determine its va- lidity and reliability in patients with CRF treated by home mechanical ventilation (HMV). Methods: Forward- and back-translation of the MRF-28 questionnaire; the final version was submitted to 81 patients treated with HMV for CRF, simultaneously with the St. George’s Respirato- ry Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Short Form 36 (SF-36), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD). Validi- ty was determined by correlation with previously vali- dated HRQL scores and recorded physiological parame- ters. Reliability was evaluated by assessing internal con- sistency and test-retest stability of the MRF-28 scores. Results: The French version of the MRF-28 and its sub- scores (‘daily activity’, ‘cognitive function’, and ‘invalidi- ty’) were highly significantly correlated with subscores of the SGRQ, the SF-36 and the HAD. Both the MRF-28 and the SGRQ were correlated only with age and the 6-min walk test. The MRF-28 showed high test-retest reliability after 2 weeks (r 2 = 0.80, p ! 0.0001) and high internal con- sistency (Crohnbachs’ · coefficient: 0.91). Conclusion: The French version of the MRF-28 is a valid and reliable disease-specific questionnaire for assessing HRQL in pa- tients with CRF. Copyright © 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in respiratory disorders is increasingly considered as a clinical endpoint per se [1] To date, an estimated 30 ques- Downloaded by: BCU Lausanne 155.105.7.44 - 7/17/2014 11:43:25 AM