Validation Assessment of the Chinese Version of the International Restless Legs Scale

中文版國際不寧腿症候群量表之效度分析

陳彥融(Yen-Lung Chen) ； 林士為(Shih-Wei Lin) ； 莊立邦(Li-Pang Chuang) ； 賴思佳(Szu-Chia Lai) ； 陳柔賢(Rou-Shayn Chen) ； 陳濘宏(Ning-Hung Chen)

《胸腔醫學》 28卷2期 (2013/04) Pp. 65-72

摘要

Purpose: Diagnosis of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is difficult because the symptoms are non-specific and difficult for patients to describe clearly. Reports of RLS among Asians are rare and most studies in Asian populations showed a substantially lower prevalence than that in Caucasians. The reason for the low prevalence rate in Asian populations may be the difficulty of defining the symptoms in different languages. In order to provide a valid instrument for the Chinese-speaking population, the original International Restless Legs Scale (IRLS) was translated into Chinese and then validated in this study. Methods: Nineteen bilingual patients were requested to answer the English-language version of the IRLS and then the Chinese version 2 weeks later. The other 37 patients were requested to answer the Chinese version of the IRLS (IRLS-C) twice at a 2-week interval. All patients were rated for severity of RLS using the IRLS, and a clinical global impression (CGI) of the severity was determined before and after standard treatment. Results: The correlation coefficient between the IRLS-C and the original IRLS was 0.745 (p＜0.0001). The retest ICC reliability for the IRLS-C total score was 0.712, and the Cronbach's α coefficient value was 0.84. The correlations between the IRLS-C and the CGI were significant (r=0.430, p=0.005). Conclusions: The ILRS-C is a valid, reliable, and sensitive measure that can be used to evaluate the severity of RLS among Chinese-speaking adults.

關鍵字

不寧腿症候群 ； 國際不寧腿症候群量表 ； 中文版 ； 效度

並列摘要

Purpose: Diagnosis of restless legs syndrome (RLS) is difficult because the symptoms are non-specific and difficult for patients to describe clearly. Reports of RLS among Asians are rare and most studies in Asian populations showed a substantially lower prevalence than that in Caucasians. The reason for the low prevalence rate in Asian populations may be the difficulty of defining the symptoms in different languages. In order to provide a valid instrument for the Chinese-speaking population, the original International Restless Legs Scale (IRLS) was translated into Chinese and then validated in this study. Methods: Nineteen bilingual patients were requested to answer the English-language version of the IRLS and then the Chinese version 2 weeks later. The other 37 patients were requested to answer the Chinese version of the IRLS (IRLS-C) twice at a 2-week interval. All patients were rated for severity of RLS using the IRLS, and a clinical global impression (CGI) of the severity was determined before and after standard treatment. Results: The correlation coefficient between the IRLS-C and the original IRLS was 0.745 (p＜0.0001). The retest ICC reliability for the IRLS-C total score was 0.712, and the Cronbach's α coefficient value was 0.84. The correlations between the IRLS-C and the CGI were significant (r=0.430, p=0.005). Conclusions: The ILRS-C is a valid, reliable, and sensitive measure that can be used to evaluate the severity of RLS among Chinese-speaking adults.

並列關鍵字

restless legs syndrome ； International Restless Legs Scale ； Chinese version ； validation