Abstract
Background Almost 1 person in 1,000 experiences a stroke annually in France. Health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) measurement with specific questionnaires is useful to study the consequences of stroke on patients' daily lives.
Objective The purpose of this study was to validate the French version of the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) questionnaire, as no disease-specific questionnaire was validated in French heretofore.
Methods Two hundred eighty-eight patients with stroke were classified into 2 groups (158 acute, 130 chronic). Rate of item completion, test-retest reliability, sensitivity to change, and construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were assessed. Acute group patients were recruited during the first month poststroke and followed for 3 months. Chronic group patients (stroke dating from 1 year) were recruited from outpatient consultations. The first 100 patients in the chronic group were called back 15 days after inclusion for test-retest measurements. The Barthel Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Duke Health Profile questionnaires were administered.
Results The French version of the SIS was well accepted by all participants. It had good reproducibility. Cronbach alpha was 89% for all scales. A ceiling effect was noted in the majority of scales. Physical domains were significantly correlated to other measures of physical capacity (Barthel Index and Duke Health Profile; Spearman coefficients were between .5 and .73), and the emotional and social domains were significantly correlated to almost all domains of the Duke Health Profile. Psychometric properties were similar to those of the US version. Responsiveness was good for physical and emotional domains.
Limitations Validation was conducted only on people who were able to answer the questionnaire.
Conclusions The French SIS version presents good psychometric properties, except for ceiling effect. This is the first stroke-specific questionnaire evaluating perceived health after stroke to be validated in France and could be useful for further investigations of HRQoL after stroke.
Footnotes
Dr Caël, Dr Binquet, Dr Benaim, and Dr Mercier provided concept/idea/research design and writing. Dr Caël, Dr Decavel, Miss Chotard, Dr Moulin, and Dr Bejot provided data collection. Dr Caël, Dr Benaim, Mr Puyraveau, and Dr Mercier provided data analysis. Dr Caël, Dr Benaim, and Dr Mercier provided project management. Dr Caël and Dr Mercier provided fund procurement. Dr Benaim, Miss Chotard, Dr Moulin, Dr Parratte, and Dr Bejot provided study participants. Dr Benaim, Dr Moulin, Dr Parratte, and Dr Bejot provided facilities/equipment. Dr Binquet and Dr Mercier provided institutional liaisons. Miss Chotard provided administrative support. Dr Decavel, Dr Binquet, Dr Benaim, Mr Puyraveau, and Dr Bejot provided consultation (including review of manuscript before submission).
The authors thank Emilie Galizzi and Sandrine Vinault for their help with computer programming, Véronique Cote and Dr Didier Chavot for their kindness and help with inclusions, and Fiona Ecarnot (EA3920, University Hospital of Besançon, France) for translation and editorial assistance.
The Ethics Committee of the University Hospital of Besançon and the national committee for the protection of privacy and personal data (Commission Nationale de I'Informatique et des Libertés [CNIL]) approved the study.
This work was supported by an interregional grant from the French National Programme for Clinical Research (Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique [PHRC]).
- Received February 4, 2013.
- Accepted November 23, 2014.
- © 2015 American Physical Therapy Association
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