[Cross-cultural adaptation of the French version of the thyroid cancer-specific quality of life questionnaire: THYCA-QoL]

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to translate into French the 24 items of the THYCA-QoL questionnaire used in thyroid cancers and then to study its psychometric properties.

Materials and methods: The THYCA-QoL is a specific questionnaire for evaluating the quality of life of patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery. It consists of 24 items and is divided into seven dimensions and six isolated questions. The translation has been carried out according to the recommendations of the EORTC. Validation of the translated version was obtained by finding a consensus of experts for each of the items.

Results: All the original questions of the questionnaire have been adapted into French. The translated questionnaire, named THYCA-CoL-fr, was tested on 60 patients (65 % female), mean age 54.5 years. All questions were well accepted and understood and no missing data were reported. Eight patients (13 %) proposed an item correction to the questionnaire. No attenuation effects (floor or ceiling) were detected. The internal structure was comparable to the original questionnaire: Cronbach α coefficients varied from 0.53 for the oropharyngeal dimension to 0.88 for the voice dimension. The scree-plot highlighted the seven dimensions of the English version.

Conclusion: THYCA-QoL-fr is the first specific French language questionnaire to evaluate the quality of life in thyroid cancer patients undergoing surgery. These first exploratory psychometric results confirmed the conceptual similarity of the French translation and the English version.

Keywords: Cancer; Carcinoma; Quality of life; Qualité de vie; Questionnaire; Survey; Thyroid; Thyroïde.