Development and validation of a Chinese version of the Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index

Objective A Chinese version of the Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (SAQLI) for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) undergoing treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was developed and validated. No Chinese versions of the SAQLI have been previously validated. Methods A convenience sample of 78 patients with OSA who received CPAP therapy at a Taiwanese teaching hospital was enrolled. The SAQLI is organized into four domains: daily functioning, social interactions, emotional functioning, and symptoms. This study evaluated the equivalence (forward translation and back translation), validity, and reliability of a Chinese version of the SAQLI. Results The content validity index (CVI) values of the daily functioning, social interactions, emotional functioning, and symptom domains were .93, .93, .96, and 1.00, respectively. Construct validity of one factor was generated by exploratory factor analysis, and the factor explained the following: (A) daily functioning 54%, (B) social interactions 59%, (C) emotional functioning 64%, and (D) symptoms 75% of total explained variance. The Cronbach’s α internal consistency values for the daily functioning, social interactions, emotional functioning, and symptom domains were 0.68, 0.94, 0.93, and 0.92, respectively. The repeatability of the SAQLI at 7 days and 30 days after the first administration showed reliability coefficients of .94 and .93 ( p = 0.001), respectively. Conclusions The results indicate that the Chinese version of the SAQLI has good reliability and validity, as well as refined indicators for assessing the tool’s accuracy. Clinicians may thus use the scale to examine the quality of life in Chinese-speaking patients with OSA undergoing CPAP therapy.