Translation, adaptation and validation of two versions of the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire in Malaysian patients for speakers of both English and Malay languages: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to adapt, translate and validate the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) in Malaysian patients with chronic liver diseases of various aetiologies. SETTING: Tertiary level teaching institution in Malaysia. PARTICIPANTS: The validation process involved 211 adult patients (English language n=101, Malay language n=110) with chronic liver disease. Characteristics of the study subjects were as follows: mean (SD) age was 56 (12.8) years, 58.3% were male and 41.7% female. The inclusion criteria were patients 18 years or older with chronic hepatitis and/or liver cirrhosis of any aetiology. The exclusion criteria were as follows: presence of hepatic encephalopathy, ongoing treatment with interferon and presence of other chronic conditions that have an impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Cultural adaptation of the English version of the CLDQ was performed, and a Malay version was developed following standard forward–backward translation by independent native speakers. Psychometric properties of both versions were determined by assessing their internal consistency, test–retest reliability and discriminant and convergent validity. RESULTS: Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency across the various domains of the CLDQ was 0.95 for the English version and 0.92 for the Malay version. Test–retest analysis showed excellent reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.89 for the English version and 0.93 for the Malay version. The average scores of both the English and Malay versions of the CLDQ demonstrated adequate discriminant validity by differentiating between non-cirrhosis (English 6.3, Malay 6.1), compensated cirrhosis (English 5.6, Malay 6.0) and decompensated cirrhosis (English 5.1, Malay 4.9) (p<0.001). Convergent validity showed that correlation was fair between the English (ρ=0.59) and Malay (p=0.47) CLDQ versions with the EQ-5D, a generic HRQOL instrument. CONCLUSION: The English and Malay versions of the CLDQ are reliable and valid disease-specific instruments for assessing HRQOL in Malaysian patients with chronic liver disease.