Validation of an instrument to measure the quality of life in children with oropharyngeal mucositis undergoing cancer treatment

Abstract

Background: Oropharyngeal mucositis (OM) is one of the primary complications arising during oncological treatment, which significantly reduces the patient's quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the use of a new Spanish version of the Oropharyngeal Mucositis-Specific Quality-of-Life instrument (OMQoL) for pediatric patients. Methods: A multicentric, cross-sectional validation study was conducted to translate and adapt OMQoL from English to Spanish for its use by children with OM aged 8-16 years. Reliability was measured using Cronbach's alpha; content and construct validity, in conjunction with exploratory factor analysis. The convergent validity, with the correlations of the scales for OM defined by the WHO, OMAS (Oropharingeal Mucositis Assessment Scale) and the PedsQL-3 cancer module in Spanish. Results: One hundred and ninety-three children with mean age of 10.91 ± 2.38 years participated in the study, out of which 101 (52.3%) were females. In this sample, 80 children (41.5%) suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 111 (57.5%) had grade 2 and 3 OM. The factorial analysis resulted in four dimensions with loads >0.40. Among the 31 items of the OMQoL, six were eliminated. Cronbach alpha of OMQoL-Spanish was 0.954. Spearman´s correlations (r) with the OMS and OMAS scales were significant (with r = −0.720 and r = −0.689; p < 0.01, respectively). Moderate correlation was observed with the PedsQL-3 cancer module (r = 0.426; p < 0.01). conclusions: OMQoL-Spanish demonstrated adequate psychometric properties, resulting in a reliable and valid instrument for measuring QoL in children with MO.

Manifestaciones bucales de la leucemia linfoblástica aguda en infantes de 4 a 10 años de edad. Revisión bibliográfica

“…De acuerdo las publicaciones indagadas se lograron identificar que en Colombia México y Ecuador son los países con mayores investigaciones referentes al tema, sin embargo, el país con mayor número de casos fue Argentina, Brasil a diferencia del resto de países de América latina (10) .…”

“…Es una enfermedad heterogénea cuya incidencia es más frecuente en varones (8) . A pesar de que su ocurrencia sea principalmente en infantes, para los adultos la situación seria catastrófica (9) .Esta leucemia es uno de los mayores motivos de fallecimientos no accidentales en infantes mayores al primer año de edad (10) .…”

“…Los resultados de una mala higiene bucal van a provocar una serie de alteraciones en la salud oral como gingivitis, candidiasis, ulceras, gingivorragias, mucositis, palidez de la mucosa bucal afectando la autoestima del infante (8) . Todo paciente pediátrico debe recibir intervención odontológica necesaria para eliminar los focos infecciosos antes de empezar con la terapia oncológica y tratar lo más pronto las enfermedades bucodentales que se presentaran como resultado de la quimioterapia para poder prevenir complicaciones debilitantes durante la fase inmunosuprimida (10) (21) .…”

Validity and reliability of the Persian version of the oropharyngeal Mucositis quality of life scale

“…The load of factorial analysis was more than 0.4 in four dimensions, and Cronbach's alpha was calculated 0.954. According to this study, OMQoL -Spanish is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the quality of life in children suffering from oral mucositis [ 29 ].…”