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Sarcopenia quality-of-life questionnaire (SarQoL)®: translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation in Turkish

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research volume 33, pages 2979–2988 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

The sarcopenia quality-of-life (SarQoL)® questionnaire is a multidimensional sarcopenia specific tool designed for community dwelling older adults.

Aims

The aim of this study was to translate, to cross-culturally adapt and validate the SarQoL® questionnaire to assess sarcopenia-related quality of life in Turkish older adults.

Methods

The validation process was performed in two sections: the first section constituted the translation with cross-cultural adaptation of SarQoL® into Turkish. Second section constituted the clinical validation study. To validate the Turkish version of the SarQoL®, we assessed its validity (discriminative power, construct validity), reliability (internal consistency, test–retest reliability) and floor/ceiling effects.

Results

One hundred community-dwelling subjects (mean age: 74.7 ± 6.1 years) were evaluated. The EWGSOP2 consensus diagnostic criteria were used to diagnose probable sarcopenia. A database including 1437 older adults, with complete evaluation of sarcopenia parameters, served to define low global muscle function. Results revealed a good discriminative power: subjects with probable sarcopenia had higher total scores compared to non-sarcopenic subjects (50 ± 16 vs. 68.9 ± 16.9, p < 0.001) a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.88), consistent construct validity and excellent test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.94–0.98). There was no floor/ceiling effect.

Conclusion

The Turkish version of the SaQoL® questionnaire was found to be reliable and valid for the measurement of quality of life of sarcopenic patients and is, therefore, available for use in clinical research and practice. This validation could enable use of the SarQoL® tool in the eastern populations more confidently.

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Availability of data and material

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Erhan Eser for his help in EQ-5D calculations. We would also like to thank to Anton Geerinck for his review and comments on the article. The authors of the present study certify that they comply with the ethical guidelines for authorship and publishing.

Funding

No funds, grants, or other support was received.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Tugba Erdogan, Serdar Eris, Pinar Kucukdagli, Cihan Kilic, Mehmet Akif Karan & Gulistan Bahat

  2. Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Cerrahpasa Medical School, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey

    Suna Avci

  3. Department of Public Health Istanbul, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Meryem Merve Oren

  4. Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics, University of Liège, 4000, Liège, Belgium

    Charlotte Beaudart & Olivier Bruyere

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  1. Tugba Erdogan
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Contributions

TE, GB, CB and OB designed the study. TE, GB prepared the first draft of the paper. Material preparation, data collection was performed by TE, SE, SA, PK, CK. MMO was responsible for statistical analysis of the data. All authors revised the paper critically for intellectual content and approved the final version. All authors agree to be accountable for the work and to ensure that any questions relating to the accuracy and integrity of the paper are investigated and properly resolved.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gulistan Bahat.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Statement of human and animal rights

The study was conducted according to guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved from the Istanbul University Ethics Committee (number: 2018/989).

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Written, informed consent was provided by all participants.

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Erdogan, T., Eris, S., Avci, S. et al. Sarcopenia quality-of-life questionnaire (SarQoL)®: translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation in Turkish. Aging Clin Exp Res 33, 2979–2988 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01780-0

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Keywords

  • Quality of life
  • Sarcopenia
  • SarQoL
  • Translation
  • Validation