1. INTRODUCTION
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic immune disorder
characterized by eosinophilic inflammation of the esophagus that causes
esophageal dysfunction.1, 2 The most bothersome
symptoms of EoE are food impaction and dysphagia which are more
prominent in adolescents and adults.3 EoE diagnosis
involves clinical presentation, endoscopic findings, and biopsy results
showing eosinophilic infiltration. Treatment for pediatric patients
includes dietary modifications (elimination diets) and medications
(topical corticosteroids, proton pump inhibitors, biologic
agents).4 Symptoms and adaptive eating behaviours may
affect quality of life (QoL) negatively in adolescents and other age
groups and may constitute the main components of patient reported
outcomes (PRO).5, 6 It can cause pain and feeding
problems, especially by making eating difficult. In addition, recurrent
and severe episodes of esophagitis can cause physical and psychological
fatigue, stress and lack of self-confidence. It can also make
participation in school and social activities difficult. If left
untreated, eosinophilic esophagitis can lead to long-term health
problems for adolescents.
Standardized and validated instruments that measure PRO are neccessary
not only for clinical use but also for research purposes. There are four
instruments in children with EoE that measures PRO that are Pediatric
Eosinophilic Esophagitis Symptom Scores® (PEESS v2.0), Gazi University
Eosinophilic Esophagitis Symptoms and Adaptive Behavior Scale
(GaziESAS), GaziESAS v2.0 and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™
(PedsQL™) 3.0 EoE Module.6-11
In addition, there are no study that completed all steps of
transcultural adaptation by validation and reliability studies of
PedsQL™ 3.0 EoE Module in another language. There is only one study that
reported linguistic validation step in Spanish.4Therefore for the first time, we aimed to evaluate transcultural
adaptation of Turkish version of PedsQL™ (Tr- PedsQL™) 3.0 EoE Module
for teens and parent reports by validity and reliability tests.