stroke specific quality of life questionnaire: test of reliability and validity of the persian version.

background: the aim was to assess the reliability and the validity of the translated version of the stroke specific quality of life (ss-qol) questionnaire in iranian post-stroke patients. methods: this project was performed at the shiraz university of medical sciences, shiraz, iran, between 12  april  2010  and  24  february 2011.  the  english version of the ss-qol was translated into persian by “forward-backward” translation, cognitive inquiring and cultural adaptation process. the reliability and internal consistency were measured by cronbach’s alpha coefficient. validity was assessed using convergent and divergent validity through spearman’s correlation coefficient. results: our study included 117 post-stroke patients, consisting of 57 (48.7%) men and 60 (51.3%) women. the mean age of the patients was 81.60 ± 7.52 (range 60-88) years. the persian version of the ss-qol proved reliable (cronbach’s α = 0.96). internal consistency was excellent for both demographic and patients’ clinical characteristics (cronbach’s α ≥ 0.70). the scaling success rates were 100% for convergent validity of each scale. divergent validity for all 12 scales was considered acceptable, whereas each scale had a 100% scaling success rate for convergent validity. conclusion: the persian version of ss-qol should be mentioned as a noteworthy instrument to specify different  aspects  of  health  related  qol  of  patients suffering stroke and hence that clinicians, researchers and epidemiologist can exploit it trustfully.