Validity and reliability of the Malay Short Version of the Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders-Negative Statements (sQOD-NS)

BACKGROUND: Olfaction plays an enormous role in every aspect of life including health, emotions, social life, and safety. This is why olfactory dysfunction will leave a great impact on a person’s life. During the recent pandemic hit of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), much importance was given to olfaction and its sequelae post-COVID-19. There is various questionnaire being used for determining olfactory disorders worldwide. In Malaysia, Malay language is widely conversed among the local population hence an assessment tool for an olfactory specific quality of life is necessary. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study performed in the Otorhinolaryngology clinic in a tertiary hospital. The short Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders-Negative Statements (sQOD-NS) is a validated questionnaire that is a simple and easy tool to assess the impact of olfactory dysfunction in daily life. The original version of the short Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders-Negative Statements (sQOD-NS) questionnaire was translated into the Malay language. A forward-backwards translation, validity, and reliability study was done on this questionnaire. A Malay version of sQOD-NS was responded to by a total of 70 participants including 35 patients of normosia and 35 patients with smell dysfunction and repeated after 2 weeks via phone call response. The discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test re-test reliability were assessed. RESULTS: The pilot study revealed that participants who were normosmic had a higher mean score than smell dysfunction. A Student t test shows mean 20.5 ± 1.22 in normosmic group and 6.06 ± 2.41 in hyposmic group which are significant with p value of < 0.01. The coefficient of correlation (r) between test and retest scores was 0.77 (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The Malay translation of sQOD-NS is a validated questionnaire that can be used both in clinical practice and in academics. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43163-022-00265-3.