Health-related quality-of-life in patients with head-and-neck cancer in Sri Lanka: Psychometric properties of the 'Sinhala' version of the EORTC QLQ-H&N35

Abstract

Objective: To translate and validate the 'Sinhala' language version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer head-and-neck cancer-specific health-related quality-of-life questionnaire module, the QLQ-H&N35, for use in Sri Lanka. Methods: Psychometric testing assessed the hypothesized scale structure, scale reliability, construct validity and acceptability of the translated version of the QLQ-H&N35 in a consecutive series of 196 newly diagnosed head-and-neck cancer patients, recruited from tertiary-care oncology treatment centres in Sri Lanka. Results: Compliance was high (97.5%), although nearly 40% of patients required assistance with completion of the questionnaire..