Validation of a Yoruba translation of the World Health Organization's quality of life scale-short form among stroke survivors in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

The World Health Organization's quality of life scale - short form (WHOQOL-BREF) is a well-validated, cross-cultural tool for measuring quality of life (QOL) of patients with chronic diseases. It has been translated into over 20 languages, none of which is an indigenous Nigerian language. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of a Yoruba translated version of the WHOQOL-BREF. Yoruba is the indigenous language of southwestern Nigeria. The English version of the WHOQOL-BREF was translated into Yoruba and it went through two rounds of back-translation. The English and Yoruba versions of WHOQOL-BREF were completed by 41 stroke survivors, literate in both languages. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling method from physiotherapy clinics of all tertiary health institutions in southwestern Nigeria between April and August, 2004. Data was analyzed using Spearman rank order correlation and paired t- test with the alpha level set at 0.05. Participants (24 males, 14 females) were aged 55±10.7 years and have had stroke for 28.4±6.7 months. Participants' domain scores on the Yoruba translated version of WHOQOL-BREF correlated significantly with those on its English version (r = 0.695 - 0.859; p = 0.000). This Yoruba version is a valid translation of the English WHOQOL-BREF and may be used for assessing QOL of stroke survivors in southwestern Nigeria.