A Spanish Version of the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire

Abstract

Although Spanish is a major world language and increasingly common in North America, most instruments that measure quality of life (QOL) are written in English, limiting researchers’ ability to assess QOL in patients who speak only Spanish. In this article, we present a Spanish version of the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL), a validated instrument found particularly relevant for patients with life-threatening illness. A translation/ back-translation method, supplemented with review by a committee composed of lay persons and clinicians speaking Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Salvadoran, Ecuadorian, and Colombian Spanish, was used to achieve conceptual equivalence with the English version. Our initial review demonstrated face validity for the Spanish version of the MQOL. However, further testing is required to fully determine its psychometric properties and to provide a version that has been validated in use.