SHORT ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2001 February;136(1):73-6

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Construction and validation of the italian version of Skindex-29. A new instrument to measure quality of life in dermatology

Abeni D., Picardi A., Puddu P. *, Pasquini P., Chren M. M. **

Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata IDI-IRCCS - Roma Dipartimento di Epidemiologia e Psicologia Clinica *Dipartimento di Dermatoimmunologia **University of California, San Francisco, California Department of Dermatology

Background. Skin diseases often seriously influence patients’ lives and may have major psychological effects. Therefore the availability of instruments capable of measuring reliably and accurately the impact of disease has particular importance in dermatology. Skindex-29 is likely the best self-administered questionnaire presently available to measure comprehensively the complex effects of skin diseases on patients’ health-related quality of life. It assesses the importance of symptoms, social function, and emotional state. This questionnaire is easy to administer and has very good psychometric properties. Up to now, Skindex-29 was not available for Italian dermatologists. We planned this study with the aim of producing a valid and reliable Italian version of Skindex-29.
Methods. To obtain a valid Italian version of Skindex-29, we followed well-known guidelines for the cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures. A first version was revised twice, then the third version was tested in a small pilot study. Finally, the fourth version was back-translated and discussed with one of the authors of the original instrument.
Results. This process enabled us to obtain an Italian version which maintains the psychometric soundness and the easiness of use of the original version.
Conclusion. The Italian version of Skindex-29 may be very useful for Italian dermatologists both for clinical practice and research purposes.