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.