Development and validation of Arabic version of the postoperative quality of recovery scale

INTRODUCTION: The postoperative quality of recovery scale (PostopQRS) is a widely used tool to assess the postoperative quality of recovery. Our aim was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the PostopQRS questionnaire in Arabic. METHODOLOGY: A systematic translation process was used to translate the original English PostopQRS into Arabic. After the pilot study, the translated version was validated among patients who underwent different types of surgeries. We examined the reliability (using internal consistency) and validity of the translated version. To examine the responsiveness of the translated PostopQRS, the questionnaire was administered 6 times among the same group of patients (once before surgery as baseline measure, and 5 times after surgery, up to 1 week after surgery). RESULTS: A total of 190 patients (10 men, 180 women) were included. Internal consistencies vary across each domain and overtime, with mostly good to excellent reliability. Most patients found the PostopQRS questions to be clear and easy to understand and thought the questionnaire items covered all their problem areas regarding their quality of recovery. In general, patients showed recovery across all five domains starting from postoperative day 1 (POD1). Patients showed the fastest recovery in the emotional domain, and the proportion of recovered patients remained stable over time. Most patients were recovered in the cognitive domain by POD1. Although only a small proportion of patients were recovered in the physiological and activities of daily living domains in POD1, most patients were recovered by POD3. The proportion of patients recovered in the nociceptive domain declined initially, but more patients showed recovery by POD3 and most were recovered by POD7. Furthermore, quality of recovery was related to the extent of surgery (major vs. minor). CONCLUSION: Our translated version of PostopQRS was reliable and valid for use among Arabic-speaking patients. In addition, we showed that the PostopQRS was able to track the changes in recovery among patients in our study.