Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important measure that enables evaluation of rehabilitation outcomes. Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Generic Scale-39 (SAQOL-39g) is a disease-specific questionnaire that measures HRQOL of patients with stroke. This study was conducted to adapt the preliminary version of proxy-rated Sinhala version of the SAQOL-39g. METHODS: The study was conducted with the participation of 115 proxies of the patients with stroke. The SAQOL-39g was translated and back translated, and culturally adapted by evaluating the items of the questionnaire. The culturally adapted scale was evaluated for its internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients with stroke was 67.07 (standard deviation [SD] = 11.2) years; males comprising two-thirds of the study sample (67% [n = 77]). The proxy-rated Sinhala version of the SAQOL-39g showed excellent internal consistency (α = 0.98 [overall score]), 0.97, 0.96, and 0.95 for physical, communication, and psychosocial domains, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.92 for overall, and 0.93, 0.92, and 0.91 for physical, communication, and psychosocial domains, respectively. Factor analysis extracted 3 factors with 72.4% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: Proxy-rated Sinhala version of the SAQOL-39g is a psychometrically sound, reliable, and valid tool to assess the post-stroke quality of life of Sinhala-speaking patients with stroke and aphasia.