Evaluation of the Greek TranQol: a novel questionnaire for measuring quality of life in transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients

AbstractThe aim of our study was to evaluate the Greek version of the transfusion-dependent quality of life (TranQol) questionnaire and report our experience of using this novel disease-specific quality of life (QoL) measure in patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT). The TranQol and SF-36v2 questionnaires were administered to 94 adult TDT patients with a mean age of 32.1  years (SD = 7, range = 19–58), recruited from the Adult Thalassemia Unit of Hippokration General Hospital of Thessaloniki, Greece. The TranQol was evaluated in terms of construct validity, reliability, and responsiveness. There was a moderately strong correlation between the TranQol summary and both the SF-36v2 physical and mental component summaries (r = 0.4,p <  0.001 andr = 0.5,p <  0.001, respectively). There was also a moderately strong correlation between the physical health scale of TranQol and the relevant SF-36v2 scales, including physical functioning (r = 0.4,p <  0.001), role-physical (r = 0.6,p <  0.001), and bodily pain (r = 0.5,p <  0.001). TranQol also exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.9) and excellent test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.9). The subgroup of patients that reported a better QoL 1 week after transfusion also demonstrated a significant impro vement in their TranQol score. These are the first data regarding the administration of the Greek TranQol in a sin...
Source: Annals of Hematology - Category: Hematology Source Type: research