Translation of the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument to the Arabic Language

Background: Adenotonsillectomy is one of the most commonly performed pediatric surgeries worldwide. To date, no questionnaire assessing the quality of life of patients post-operatively exists in the Arabic language. Our objective is to translate the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument from English to Arabic and evaluate its internal consistency. We then attempt to use the translated questionnaire to assess the change in quality of life of patients undergoing adenotonsillectomy. Methods: Translation of the English TAHSI was performed using the guidelines for cross-cultural translation of quality of life measures. The obtained version of the questionnaire in Arabic was used on 141 patients enrolled prospectively over 3 years to assess for validity and internal consistency. Patients were enrolled from the pediatric otolaryngology clinic at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Results: Cronbach alpha coefficients for the pre-operative and post-operative translated questionnaires were 0.79 and 0.78 respectively, confirming adequate internal consistency. Mean total pre-operative score was 28.88 ± 10.80, significantly higher than the mean post-operative score of 5.00 ± 5.57 (p<0.0001) showing an improvement in quality of life after surgery. Conclusion: In this study we successfully translated the Tonsil and Adenoid Health Status Instrument from English to Arabic. The questionnaire obtained is the only available quality of life measurement tool in Arabic specific to adenotonsillectomy. It was used to show that adenotonsillectomy significantly improves the quality of life of patients.