Translation and validation of the Quality-of-Life Bronchiectasis questionnaire in Swedish, and correlation with clinical outcomes

<b>Background:</b> Bronchiectasis (B) is a chronic lung disease that affects a patient’s Quality of Life (QoL). QoL-B is a self-administered patient-reported questionnaire developed for bronchiectasis. Yet, a proper translation of this questionnaire into Swedish does not exist. <b>Aim:</b> To translate and validate a Swedish version of QoL-B and to evaluate its correlation with clinical status. <b>Methods:</b> The English QoL-B translated into Swedish according to standard methodology and validated in patients with bronchiectasis from our outpatient clinic as part of the EMBARC registry. <b>Results:</b> Forty-nine patients were studied (mean age 67 years, 71% females). QoL-B had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s a 0,9). In a 2-week test-retest reliability, the value for intraclass correlation coefficients was 0,93.&nbsp;Women had lower scores than men, for the vitality to reach significance (p=0,026). Patients with airway obstruction, i.e., FEV1% &lt; 70% (39,6 %), had lower scores compared to ones with FEV1≥ 70% in QoL scales, with physical (p=0,001), role functioning (p=0,042), vitality (p=0,049) and respiratory symptoms (p=0,006) reaching significance. Patients with sputum production had lower scores to all scales with role functioning (p= 0,043), treatment burden (p=0,007), health perceptions (p=0,039) and respiratory symptoms (p=0,002) reaching significance. <b>Conclusions:</b> The Swedish QoL-B questionnaire&nbsp;demonstrated strong reliability, validity, reproducibility and&nbsp;differentiated&nbsp;with clinical severity outcomes. It should be used in the clinic.