Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of Short Version of Thyroid-specific Patient Reported Outcome (ThyPRO39)

Abstract

Objective: To test the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of short version of Thyroid-specific Patient Reported Outcome (ThyPRO39) translated from the original abbreviated version of ThyPRO39 among Chinese patients with benign thyroid disease.

Methods: Using a convenience sampling method, 230 patients with benign thyroid disorders were recruited from the endocrine outpatient clinics and inpatient units at the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University from February to April in 2016. The English version of ThyPRO39 was translated into Chinese according to Brislin′s translation model and items were adjusted based on the results of consulting expert committee. After that the Chinese version of ThyPRO39 was developed and filled in by 230 cases of thyroid disorders. The retest was done in a subsample of 30 revisiting patients 2-3 weeks later. According to the total scores of the patients obtained from the questionnaire, 27% of the patients with highest scores were set up as the high score group (n=62, ≥40 points), and 27% with lowest scores were arranged as the low score group (n=60, ≤21 points). And scores of each item were compared between the two groups. The content validity of the scale was evaluated by content validity index (CVI). The construct validity of the scale was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The criterion-related validity of Chinese version of ThyPRO39 was evaluated by SF-36. And the reliability of the scale was assessed by Cronbach′s α coefficient, split-half reliability and retest reliability.

Results: There were statistically significant differences in the scores of the 39 items of Chinese version of ThyPRO39 between the high score group and low score group (P＜0.05). CVI of the items (I-CVI) ranged 0.830-1.000, and the average CVI of all items (S-CVI) was 0.952.

Results: of EFA showed that KMO value was 0.867; Bartlett′s test of sphericity was χ2=3 893.300 (P＜0.01); a total of 10 principal components were extracted, which could interpret 64.435% of the total variance. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the physical symptom, physical, mental, social well-being, appearance dimensions and single QoL item of the Chinese version of ThyPRO39 were negatively correlated with the physical and mental dimensions of SF-36 (P＜0.01). The Cronbach′s α coefficient and split-half coefficient of the Chinese version of ThyPRO39 was 0.916 and 0.711. The retest 2-3 weeks later indicated that the reliability of the subscales ranged 0.722-0.858 (P＜0.01).

Conclusion: The survey showed that Chinese version of ThyPRO39 has good reliability and validity, which may be useful for measuring the quality of life in Chinese patients with benign thyroid disease.