French validation of the Brace Questionnaire (BrQ)

BACKGROUND Quality of Life (QoL) scales have to be introduced in the treatment evaluation of our patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Vasiliadis et. al. created the Brace Questionnaire (BrQ), which is specific for brace-treated adolescents. This tool was developed and validated in Greek. The aim of our study was to undertake the process of cultural adaptation of the Brace Questionnaire (BrQ) into French. METHODS The BrQ is made of 34 items on Likert scale, divided in eight domains. The questionnaire was developed for self-completion by the children and is adapted for 9 to 18-year-old patients. The process of cultural adaptation of the questionnaire was in accordance with the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) guidelines. In the first place, descriptive statistics were used to calculate mean scores and standard deviations for a given question and a domain. The second level was comparative, concerning reliability and validity. RESULTS The internal consistency was satisfactory; Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.85. There were no floor or ceiling effects. CONCLUSIONS The French version of the BrQ (F-BrQ) is reliable and reproducible, and can therefore be used to evaluate the quality of life of children and adolescents treated with a brace for idiopathic scoliosis.