Original article Mandarin version of the Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire: A valid instrument for assessing symptoms in Asians Hwong-Ruey LEOW*, Siew-Mooi CHING † , Ramanujam SUJARITA ‡ , Choon-Fong YAP § , Yook-Chin CHIA ‡,§ , Shiaw-Hooi HO*, Suresh SITHAMBARAM*, Huck-Joo TAN ¶ , Khean-Lee GOH* & Sanjiv MAHADEVA* *Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, ‡ Department of Primary Care Medicine, University of Malaya Primary Care Research Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, † Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, ¶ Sunway Medical Centre, Selangor, Malaysia, and § Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a Mandarin version of the Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire (M-LDQ) in Asian patients with dyspepsia. METHODS: The M-LDQ was developed according to standardized methods. The validity, internal consis- tency, test–retest reliability and responsiveness of the instrument were evaluated in both primary and secondary care patients. RESULTS: A total of 184 patients (mean age 54.0 ± 15.8 years, of whom 59% were women and 72.3% of whom had at least secondary level educa- tion) were recruited between August 2012 and March 2013, from both primary (n = 100) and secondary care clinics (n = 84). Both the internal consistency of all components of the M-LDQ (Cronbach’s α 0.79) and test–retest reliability (Spearman’s correlation coefficient 0.78) were good. The M-LDQ was valid in diagnosing dyspepsia in primary care (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve 0.84) and was able to discriminate between secondary and primary care patients (median cumulative LDQ score 13.0 vs 3.0, P < 0.0001). Among eight patients with organic dyspepsia, the median M-LDQ score reduced signifi- cantly from 21.0 (pretreatment) to 9.5 (4 weeks post- treatment) (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The M-LDQ is a valid and respon- sive instrument for assessing ethnic Chinese adults with dyspepsia. KEY WORDS: ethnic Chinese, functional dyspepsia, Mandarin, outcome measure, questionnaire, validation. INTRODUCTION Dyspepsia, a collection of symptoms referring to the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, is a global condi- tion. 1 In South-East Asia, population-based studies have reported its prevalence ranging from 12.2% to 24.3%, 2,3 which is similar to those reported in the Far East. 4–6 Functional dyspepsia (FD) is the commonest cause of dyspepsia in both Western 7 and Eastern countries 8,9 . Unfortunately, treatment remains unsat- isfactory in FD, resulting in an impact on patients’ Correspondence to: Sanjiv MAHADEVA, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia, Email: sanjiv@ummc.edu.my Conflict of interest: None.  2014 Chinese Medical Association Shanghai Branch, Chinese Society of Gastroenterology, Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd Journal of Digestive Diseases 2014; 15; 591–596 doi: 10.1111/1751-2980.12183 591