Self-evaluation of communication experiences after laryngectomy (SECEL): translation and psychometric properties in European Portuguese

Abstract

Introduction: The patients' perception of how communication dysfunction may cause a disadvantage is important information for the clinical decision-making process.Objectives: This study aimed to translate the self-evaluation of communication experiences after laryngectomy (SECEL) to the European Portuguese (EP) and to assess its feasibility, acceptability, reliability, and validity.Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out, and a cluster sample of seven ENT outpatient clinics was drawn. The EP-SECEL was filled in by 129 people with laryngectomy, aged 29-81 years and 25 of those completed it in the second time. Patients have also filled in the European Organization for Research Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORCT), the core quality of life questionnaire (QLQ-C30) and the 35-item Head and Neck module (H&N35).Results: The EP-SECEL has the same conceptual meaning, semantics, idiomatic, format and score equivalence as the original one. Psychometric analyses revealed that it is feasible (missing <1%, to fill out took about 15 minutes for most patients), acceptable (floor and ceiling effects inferior to 15%), reliable (excellent internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha = 0.90, and moderate test-retest, Spearman's rhô = 0.64), well-constructed (66% of the total variance is explained by exploratory factor analysis), significantly convergent (correlates with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and H&N35) and validly discriminates people with total and partial laryngectomy as well as people with different primary means-of-communication.Conclusions: This study supports that the EP-SECEL has sufficient psychometric qualities to be considered an adequate tool to be recommended for assessing health-related quality of life among laryngectomy patients.

Keywords: Communication; cross-cultural adaptation; health-related quality of life; laryngectomy; patient reported outcome.