Ewa Wójcik, Radomir Reszke, Agnieszka Otlewska, Łukasz Matusiak, Faraz M. Ali, Andrew Y. Finlay, Jacek C. Szepietowski
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-3583

Chronic diseases not only have a direct influence on patients’ quality of life, but can also affect the life of family members. The aim of this study was to create the Polish language version of a questionnaire estimating impact of disease on quality of family life: the Family Reported Outcome Measure – 16 (FROM-16). A standard forward and backward translation procedure was used to convert the original English version of FROM-16 into the Polish language. Creation of the Polish version was performed in a group of 30 patients’ family members. The Polish language version of FROM-16 showed very good internal consistency reliability, the Cronbach α coefficient was 0.89. Reproducibility level was established with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.98. The Polish language version of FROM-16 can potentially be used as a tool to assess quality of life of patients’ family members.

There is a high negative impact of a patients’ disease on the quality of life (QoL) of family members. The Family Reported Outcome Measure – 16 (FROM-16) was originally created in English. The questionnaire enables assessment of relevant QoL aspects of the family members of patients with various medical conditions. This study aimed to create the Polish version of FROM-16. The results demonstrated high internal consistency and reproducibility of the instrument, therefore warranting its further use in families of Polish patients.