Cultural adaptation of the Arabic version of the Infants’ Dermatitis Quality of Life Index

OBJECTIVE: To create and validate an Arabic version of the Infants' Dermatitis Quality of Life Index (IDQoL), and to evaluate its reliability and validity in Saudi infants with atopic dermatitis (AD) of various grades of severity.

METHODS: This is a study involving a validation of a newly developed Arabic version of the IDQol. The research was conducted at the dermatology clinics and hospitals affiliated to Qassim University, Buraidah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between June 2011 and June 2012. This Arabic generic version of the IDQoL was developed using a translation/back-translation system by 2 bilingual Arabic and English scholars followed by validation and reliability assessment analysis. The developed IDQoL contains a 10-item questionnaire that assesses the impact of AD on different aspects of life. The IDQoL was applied to 370 families with infants with AD, and to 120 control families with infants without AD. The severity of AD was evaluated by the SCORAD Index.

RESULTS: This newly developed IDQoL scale showed higher scores among AD infants compared with their respective controls (p=0.00), and the scores were also higher in the severe AD compared to moderate or mild AD groups (p=0.00). The Cronbach's alpha was found to be 0.87. The item-item, item-total score, or item-severity correlations ranged from moderate to high (>/=0.6), and were statistically significant (p=0.00).

CONCLUSION: This novel Arabic version of the IDQoL proved to be an excellent tool to measure the disease impact in Arabic families with infants with AD.