persian version of the university of washington quality of life questionnaire (uw-qol): reliability and validity study

Background: the university of washington quality of life questionnaire (uw-qol) is widely used to evaluate the quality of life for head and neck cancer patients. the purpose of this study is translation of the uw-qol questionnaire's into persian.methods: after translation and cultural adaptation of the uw-qol, the questionnaire was distributed among 100 head and neck cancer patients. internal reliability of the translated uw-qol was determined using cronbach's alpha coefficient. the validity was determined by spearman correlation coefficient between uw-qol and 12-item short form survey (sf-12). the test – retest reliability was measured by intraclass correlation coefficient (icc) after one week.results: cronbach's alpha coefficient was more than 0.75 and icc coefficient was more than 0.80 in all variables. the uw-qol questionnaire composite score had a positive significant association with sf-12 questionnaire total score (spearman's correlation coefficient= 0.70, p< 0.0001).conclusion: in conclusion persian translation of the uw-qol questionnaire has acceptable reliability and validity and is as valid as the original english version in evaluating the quality of life for patients with head and neck cancer.