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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 1/2008

Open Access 01-12-2008 | Research

Reliability and validity of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and Quality of Life in Reflux and Dyspepsia (QOLRAD) questionnaire in dyspepsia: A six-country study

Authors: Károly R Kulich, Ahmed Madisch, Franco Pacini, Jose M Piqué, Jaroslaw Regula, Christo J Van Rensburg, László Újszászy, Jonas Carlsson, Katarina Halling, Ingela K Wiklund

Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes | Issue 1/2008

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Abstract

Background

Symptoms of dyspepsia significantly disrupt patients' lives and reliable methods of assessing symptom status are important for patient management. The aim of the current study was to document the psychometric characteristics of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and the Quality of Life in Reflux and Dyspepsia questionnaire (QOLRAD) in Afrikaans, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Spanish patients with dyspepsia.

Methods

853 patients with symptoms of dyspepsia completed the GSRS, the QOLRAD, the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale.

Results

The internal consistency reliability of the GSRS was 0.43–0.87 and of the QOLRAD 0.79–0.95. Test-retest reliability of the GSRS was 0.36–0.75 and of the QOLRAD 0.41–0.82. GSRS Abdominal pain domain correlated significantly with all QOLRAD domains in most language versions, and with SF-36 Bodily pain in all versions. QOLRAD domains correlated significantly with the majority of SF-36 domains in most versions. Both questionnaires were able to differentiate between patients whose health status differed according to symptom frequency and severity.

Conclusion

The psychometric characteristics of the different language versions of the GSRS and QOLRAD were found to be good, with acceptable reliability and validity. The GSRS and QOLRAD were found to be useful for evaluating dyspeptic symptoms and their impact on patients' daily lives in multinational clinical trials.
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Metadata
Title
Reliability and validity of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and Quality of Life in Reflux and Dyspepsia (QOLRAD) questionnaire in dyspepsia: A six-country study
Authors
Károly R Kulich
Ahmed Madisch
Franco Pacini
Jose M Piqué
Jaroslaw Regula
Christo J Van Rensburg
László Újszászy
Jonas Carlsson
Katarina Halling
Ingela K Wiklund
Publication date
01-12-2008
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes / Issue 1/2008
Electronic ISSN: 1477-7525
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-6-12

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