Reliability and validity of the Dutch translated Aberdeen Varicose Vein Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate reliability and validity of the Dutch translated Aberdeen Varicose Vein Questionnaire (AVVQ) for measuring health related quality of life (HR-QOL) in patients with venous disease in the lower limb.

METHODS: The AVVQ consists of 13 questions related varicose veins. This study assessed feasibility, reliability and validity of the Dutch translated AVVQ in a sample of 145 patients with venous disease of the leg. Test and retest of the Dutch translated AVVQ were performed within a 2 week interval.

RESULTS: There was a high test (99%) and retest (97%) response. Feasibility; AVVQ showed few missing answers (0.6%) and non-unique answers (0.2%). Regarding internal consistency; Cronbach's alpha exceeded 0.7 indicating a high level of concordance between the AVVQ questions (alpha=0.76). Test-retest reliability; Spearman's rho showed a significant strong association between test and retest scores (rho=0.87). Discriminative validity; AVVQ score was able to differentiate between subgroups of patients with different severity of venous disease according to the CEAP classification (Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: This study supports applications of the Dutch AVVQ in HR-QOL measurement in patients with venous disease in the Netherlands and the Flemish speaking part of Belgium.