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

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.