BACKGROUND CONTEXT

The treatment of spinal metastases (SM) has been significantly improved in recent years, which gives health-related quality of life (HRQOL) further significance in management of SM. The Spine Oncology Study Group Outcomes Questionnaire version 2.0 (SOSGOQ 2.0) was a specific targeted SM HRQOL criterion that was previously reported to pose good reliability and validity. However, there is no culturally adapted, reliable, and validated version of SOSGOQ 2.0 in mainland China.

PURPOSE

The current study aimed to translate the SOSGOQ 2.0 in a cross-cultural fashion, before evaluating the reliability and validity of the adapted simplified Chinese version of (SC-SOSGOQ 2.0) for patients with spinal metastases (SM).

STUDY DESIGN/SETTING

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and validation were performed on the Chinese version of the SOSGOQ 2.0.

PATIENT SAMPLE

Patients who were diagnosed with metastatic spinal disease, posing at least 6-years experience of education and the ability to read and speak Chinese.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Reliability and Validity of the SC-SOSGOQ 2.0 were measured to assess HRQOL in patients with SM.

METHODS

The cross-cultural adaptation of the SOSGOQ 2.0 was conducted following international guidelines. The reliability and validity of the SC-SOSGOQ 2.0 was assessed in a multi-center, prospective observational study. The test-retest reliability was assessed by comparing the results of the first and final SC-SOSGOQ 2.0 scales, with 2 weeks apart. The discriminative, concurrent, and construct validity of the cross-culturally adapted questionnaire was individually evaluated. The relationship among the SC-SOSGOQ 2.0, SC-EQ-5D-5L and SC-SF-36 was assessed using the correlation coefficients.

RESULTS

One hundred and twenty patients were included in this study. No floor or ceiling effects were observed for the SC-SOSGOQ 2.0. The Cronbach's α for domains of neurological function, pain, mental health, social function, and post-therapy were 0.825, 0.876, 0.896, 0.897, 0.943, and 0.835, respectively. The value of inter-class correlation coefficient ranged from 0.55 to 0.83, which reflected a satisfactory test-retest reliability. Concurrent assessment of criterion validity demonstrated a moderate-to-strong correlation in all domains of SC-SOSGOQ 2.0 with the SC-EQ-5D-5L (0.34–0.74) and SC-SF-36 (0.33–0.76). The best-correlated domain was physical function (0.741 in the EQ-5D-5L and 0.722 in the SF-36).

CONCLUSIONS

The SC-SOSGOQ 2.0 demonstrated an excellent acceptability, score distribution, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity. It was therefore considered as a tool effective for evaluating HRQOL of Chinese patients with SM.