A Turkish Quality-of-Life Measure for Pulmonary Fibrosis

For Turkish-speaking adults with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, health-related quality of life can now be assessed with a locally adapted questionnaire. The study found strong support for the Turkish SGRQ-I as a valid and reliable tool. It looks at symptoms, activity, and overall impact rather than lung-function numbers alone. That gives clinics and multinational research a practical way to track how the condition affects people’s lives.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, can seriously reduce health-related quality of life. Turkish-speaking patients had lacked a Turkish version of the IPF-specific St George's Respiratory Questionnaire. The research team set out to translate, culturally adapt, and validate that tool for this patient group.

Turning the questionnaire into a usable local version required several checks. Following international guidelines, researchers performed a forward translation, reconciled differing renderings, created a back translation, sought the developer’s review, and tested patients’ interpretation through cognitive debriefing. Adults with IPF were enrolled consecutively. The Turkish SGRQ-I was compared with the Turkish SGRQ and with forced vital capacity, diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide, six-minute walk test results, gender-age-physiology stage, modified Medical Research Council grade, and long-term oxygen therapy status. Clinically stable patients repeated the questionnaire after seven days to check whether their answers remained consistent.

The study included 180 patients. Their mean age was 66.3 ± 10.0 years, and 36 percent were male. Agreement with the Turkish SGRQ was excellent for activity, impact, and total scores, with intraclass correlation coefficients above 0.90. Symptom agreement was moderate. Total SGRQ-I scores were linked to FVC percent at r = -0.476, DLCO percent at r = -0.406, and six-minute walk distance at r = -0.462; each result had P below 0.001. Scores differed significantly across groups defined by DLCO percent, GAP stage, mMRC grade, and long-term oxygen therapy status, with P below 0.01. Test-retest coefficients ranged from 0.891 to 0.962, showing good to excellent repeatability.