VALIDATION OF THE DUTCH TRANSLATION OF THE INFLAMMATORY-BOWEL-DISEASEQUESTIONNAIRE (IBDQ) - A HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE QUESTIONNAIREIN INFLAMMATORY-BOWEL-DISEASE

Health-related quality of life assessment can benefit several groups i nvolved with health care. The aim of our study was to assess construct validity, reliability, discriminant ability and sensitivity to change of the Dutch translation of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionna ire (IBDQ). a disease-specific quality-of-life questionnaire. A group of 120 IBD patients completed the IBDQ and two Visual Analogue Scales concerning general well-being and bowel function twice, Fifty-two pati ents also completed the Short-Form 36 twice. Disease activity was asse ssed once. Correlations between the IBDQ scores and the global assessm ents were reasonably high and the IBDQ was shown to be discriminative, High intraclass correlation coefficients between both measurements of the IBDQ were observed in patients who reported no change in bowel co mplaints. In contrast, significant differences were found between both moments in patients who reported change. The Dutch IBDQ proved to be valid, discriminative and reliable.