VALIDATION OF THE ROMANIAN VERSION OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS QUALITY OF LIFE (MSQOL-54) INSTRUMENT

Aim: To validate the Romanian version of MSQOL questionnaire. Material and methods: The questionnaire was translated and cul-turally adapted in the Romanian space for the Romanian population and the questionnaire was validated in 50 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the Neurology Clinic at of the Iasi Rehabilitation Hospital. The following indicators were analyzed: Cronbach's alpha coef-ficient, Pearson's (r) correlation coefficient, used to investigate the relationship between the composite scores and the main clinical and demographic variables, and the Bartlett Spherici-ty Test, which shows the correlation between the questionnaire items. Results: The psycho-metric standards met, and the general demographic data are illustrated by the following re-sults. The group consisted of 50 patients, 35 women (70.0%) and 15 men (30.0%), mean age 39.76 +/- 10.493 years, age range 18 to 65 years old, with no significant gender differences between the sexes (p = 0.627). Significance level of the Bartlett Sphericity Test, p = .000 -which shows that the items in of the questionnaire are correlated with each other. The Pear-son correlation coefficients, all correlation coefficients obtained are statistically significant and moderate or strong in intensity. Median EDSS score was 3 in women, 4 in men, total score was 3. Conclusions: From now on, this adequate psychometric questionnaire will which allows an accurate measurement of quality of life (QoL) in MS patients with multiple sclerosis which is from now will be available for all medical professionals dealing with MS patients in Romania.