The development and validation of a Questionnaire in Bahasa Malaysia to assess problems of vision or feelings about vision among patients with cataracts.
Abstract Purpose We conducted the study to compare the validation properties of the English version of the Questionnaire and the Bahasa Malaysia (Malay Language) version regarding the Quality of Life of patients with cataracts. Methods We carried out a cross-sectional study collecting data between June 2017 and March 2018 in the pre-operative Eye Clinic of Hospital Melaka. The Malay version was translated by two independent translators who were well versed in both languages. Methods used to validate the standard questionnaire included the use of construct validity via factor analysis and the deployment of reliability test through assessment of internal consistency via Cronbach’s alpha. Results We observed both English and Bahasa Malaysia versions to have high reliability with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.90 and above in factors on difficulty with activities and responses to vision problems. Exploratory factor analysis performed revealed that the three-factor model fits the data well for the English version of the questionnaire - difficulty with activities (23.81% of variance), responses to vision problem (22.22% of variance) and general health and vision (14.68% of variance). The Bahasa Malaysia version of the questionnaire produced three factors with two of the factors resembling the factors from the original version of the questionnaire - difficulty with activities (24.28% of variance) and responses to vision problem (23.66% of variance). Conclusion The present study observed that both the English and Bahasa Malaysia versions of the NEI VFQ-25 have comparable construct validity to the original American version. With high validity and reliability, the tool shall be able to provide health care providers the assessment of impact due to cataract and other ophthalmic conditions on the vision-related quality of life of ophthalmic patients.