Translation, cross-cultural adaptation, and validation of the sino-nasal outcome test (snot)-22 for Finnish patients

Abstract

<p>Purpose <br></p><p>The Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT-22) is the most commonly used disease-specific quality of life questionnaire in rhinology. The purpose of this prospective study was to translate and validate SNOT-22 into Finnish. <br></p><p>Methods <br></p><p>The validation process followed the guidelines proposed for cross-cultural adaptation of health-related measures of quality of life. The study consisted of three groups: rhinologic out-patients (<em>N</em> = 96), FESS patients (<em>N</em> = 49) and healthy controls (<em>N</em> = 79). Out-patient and FESS groups completed the questionnaire twice (answers A and B), out-patients after two weeks and FESS patients after 3 months. Validity, reliability and responsiveness were evaluated. <br></p><p>Results <br></p><p>The mean SNOT-22 sum score of the out-patient questionnaires were 35.3 points (answer A) and 32.4 points (answer B). ICC in out-patient group was 0.879. For the FESS patients, the mean pre- and postoperative (answer A and B) SNOT-22 sum scores were 46.8 and 21.9 points, respectively (<em>p</em> < 0.0001). The mean SNOT-22 of healthy controls was 8.9 points. The out-patients (answer A) and healthy controls had statistically significant difference in SNOT-22 scores (<em>p</em> < 0.0001).<br></p><p>Conclusions <br></p><p>The results of our study show that the validated Finnish version of the SNOT-22 questionnaire demonstrates good validity, reliability and responsiveness.<br></p>