BACKGROUND: Crohn's disease comprises, together with ulcerative colitis, the inflammatory bowel diseases, which because their morbidity and chronic evolution have a considerable impact on the patient's quality of life. The measurement of quality of life requires the determination of the degree of subjective well-being attributed to the lack of symptoms, to psychological state and daily activity, and is useful as an instrument of evaluation, both in clinical trials and health programs. Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire is an instrument developed by North-American investigators of McMaster University which reproducibility and validity has been determined in several countries studies, and has shown its use in the measurement of the quality of life of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. AIMS: Our purpose was to translate that instrument into Portuguese language, its adaptation to Brazilian culture and verify its psychometric properties (validity and reproducibility). METHODS: It was applied to a population of 50 inflammatory bowel diseases patients (24 with Crohn's disease, 26 with ulcerative colitis). To test the criteria and construction validity of the instrument's, it was compared with SF-36, a general questionnaire for establishing quality of life, and the Crohn's Disease Activity Index and Lichtiger's Index. RESULTS: The correlations obtained were mostly moderate. About the intestinal diseases activity index, Lichtiger's index showed better correlations than Crohn's Disease Activity Index. To evaluate its reproducibility, the instrument was applied on three occasions, twice by the same observer (12 days average between applications) and once by a second observer, resulting in a high degree of intra- and interobserver correlation. CONCLUSIONS: Portuguese version of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire is a valid and reproducible instrument which can be used to evaluate the quality of life of Brazilian inflammatory bowel diseases patients.
Quality of life; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Crohn disease; Proctocolitis; Questionnaires
