Objective To study the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Lymphedema Quality of Life Questionnaire (LYMQOL) in lymphedema patients. Methods LYMQOL was translated into Chinese. The Chinese version of the LYMQOL was distributed with the official Wechat account "Lymphedema Channel" to lymphedema patients who were recruited from October 28 th, 2020 to February 23rd, 2021. Patients with upper limb lymphedema and lower limb lymphedema completed the LYMQOL-ARM subscale and the LYMQOL-LEG subscale separately, at enrollment, 1 week later, and 1 month later. Reliability, validity, feasibility, responsiveness and average time required for completing the questionnaire were assessed. Results A total of 195 patients participated in the study. The Chinese questionnaire showed high reliability with Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.849-0.902 for the LYMQOL-ARM and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.848-0.884 and Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.726-0.902 for the LYMQOL-LEG and ICC of 0.863-0.900. The LYMQOL showed moderate to good correlations with the EQ-5D (0.4<r<0.6, P<0.01; for the LYMQOL-ARM, n=95, for the LYMQOL-LEG, n=102). Responsiveness analysis suggested that quality of life of upper limb lymphedema patients decreased after 1 month (P<0.05). The average time of patients to finish the questionnaire was approximately 12 minutes. Conclusions The Chinese version of the LYMQOL is easy to answer, comprehensive and appropriate in length, and has good reliability and validity. It may be utilized to assist treatment decision-making and track changes in clinical setting or research for lymphedema.
Keywords: lymphedema quality of life questionnaire; reliability; validity.