The Italian Version of the Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND

The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire (SRI) is a multidimensional instrument for health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment in patients with chronic respiratory failure (CRF). The SRI has originally been developed in German in 2003, but 15 translated versions have been created during the last 18 years with the exclusion of the Italian translation.

AIMS OF THE STUDY: The present project was aimed at creating an Italian version of the SRI.

METHODS

Professional forward-translation and back-translation procedures have been provided based on the original German version by independent translators, and this was followed by final reconciliation.

RESULTS

The Italian SRI contains 49 items covering 7 different subscales which can summarize to one Summary Score.

CONCLUSIONS

The Italian SRI is a multidimensional instrument, which can be used for HRQL assessment in Italian-speaking patients with CRF. Validation of the Italian version of the questionnaire is formally required in the future.