Validation in French of the SWAL-QOL scale in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia.

A quality-of-life (QOL) questionnaire specifically designed for patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia (SWAL-QOL) has been elaborated and validated by Colleen McHorney. The aim of the present study was to validate the French translation of the SWAL-QOL in 73 patients with either post-stroke or post-surgical oropharyngeal dysphagia. The French version was considered understandable and acceptable by the study patients, who completed the questionnaire in approximately 20 minutes. However, 32 patients needed help in filling out the questionnaire-mostly in reading the questions and writing the answers. Completion was excellent, although seven patients missed one item. Analysis of convergent validity of the French version showed good correlation between items and the corresponding scale. Validity convergence was excellent for all the different items, with a correlation between each item and its own scale that was always greater than 0.40. Internal coherence was also excellent, with Cronbach's alpha coefficient greater than 0.7. Patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia have a poor QOL, as reflected by their very low scores. The lowest scores were related to the impact of swallowing disorders on the QOL (47+/-30) and on mental health (51+/-31). This study also demonstrated the linguistic and psychometric validity of the French version of the SWAL-QOL questionnaire.