The Spanish version of Skindex-29

Background Most currently available dermatologic quality-of-life measures w ere originally created in English, and must be translated and adapted for u se in other cultures. Our purpose was to translate and adapt culturally int o Spanish a skin-related quality-of-life measure, Skindex-29, and to begin preliminary assessments of its reliability and validity. Methods Transcultural adaptation and cross-sectional questionnaire studies were performed. One hundred and fourteen adult persons (patients and health y people) responded to the Spanish version of Skindex-29. Evaluations of th e semantic equivalence of back-translated items, reliability, construct val idity, and content validity of the Spanish version were the main outcome me asures. Comparison between Spanish and American responses was also performe d. Results Six problematic items required a second translation and back-transl ation to achieve satisfactory agreement with the original instrument. The f inal Spanish version of Skindex-29 was internally reliable (range of Cronba ch alpha for the scales, 0.70-0.87). The instrument demonstrated both const ruct and content validity. As hypothesized, scores for dermatologic patient s were higher than those for healthy persons (mean global scores 21 vs. 5, P < 0.01) and scores for patients with inflammatory diseases were higher th an those for persons with isolated skin lesions (mean global scores 32 vs. 11, P < 0.01), indicating a poorer quality of life. In addition, most patie nts' responses to an open-ended question about their skin disease were addr essed by items in the instrument. Skindex scale scores of American and Span ish respondents were similar. Conclusions We have developed a semantically equivalent translation of Skin dex-29 into Spanish. Our preliminary evaluation of its measurement properti es suggests that it is a reliable and valid measure of the effects of skin disease on the quality of life in Spanish patients.