Assessing health-related quality of life in patients with interstitial lung diseases

BACKGROUND: The R-Scale-PF was proposed to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We generated a German version of the R-Scale-PF (GR-Scale), representing the first translation of the questionnaire into another language and assessed HRQoL longitudinally in various interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) using the R-Scale-PF scoring system at a specialized ILD centre. METHODS: We have translated the questionnaire in accordance with the WHO translation guidelines and applied it to 80 ILD patients of our department, with follow-ups after 3-6 months, assessing its internal consistency, floor and ceiling effects, concurrent validity, known-groups validity, and its responsiveness to changes over time. RESULTS: At baseline, all 80 patients completed the GR-Scale. In 70 patients (87.5%), follow-up data could be obtained after 4.43 ± 1.2 months. The GR-Scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's

• Stoltefuß, S.
• Leuschner, G.
• Milger, K.
• Kauke, T.
• Götschke, J.
• Veit, T.
• Lenoir, A.
• Kneidinger, N.
• Behr, J.