2009 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 22-32
Although epilepsy is a disease that seriously affects the quality of life (QOL) of patients, few instruments appropriate for measuring the QOL of epilepsy patients are currently available in Japan. Therefore, QOLIE-31-P, the epilepsy-specific QOL questionnaire for adults that is highly reputed and widely used outside Japan, was translated in Japanese and validated linguistically. During the validation process, ten Japanese patients with epilepsy were asked to fill in the questionnaire and interviewed as to the appropriateness of the expressions used in the translated text. A few expressions had to be amended. Overall, the Japanese version of QOLIE-31-P was found to have content and face validity. The finalized version of QOLIE-31-P is expected to serve as a useful instrument for measuring the QOL in Japanese adults with epilepsy, although its psychometric properties remain to be validated.
