Objective: Our aim was to translate the Quality of Life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire (QUEST) advanced by Troster (2005) and to analyse the validity and reliability of this questionnaire. In the present study, we sought to make the QUEST, which is the most accepted quality of life scale for ET, applicable to Turkish society while protecting the test’s validity and reliability.

Background: ET is characterised by postural and kinetic components [1]. Although this condition is often assumed to be benign, it causes significant disabilities in people’s social lives and careers. ET reportedly occurs in 0.9% of the general population and affects approximately 5% of adults aged 65 years or older [2. The Quality of Life in Essential Tremor (QUEST) is a questionnaire that was developed by Troster et al. in 2005 and includes 30 questions that assess the quality of life in terms of the tremor severity, social and personal disabilities, an overall sense of health and clinical correlations [3]. An independent validation study of the QUEST performed by Martinez-Martin et al. was conducted, and during the evaluation of the quality of life of the patients, it was shown that the majority of the psychometric parameters of the QUEST exhibited satisfactory effects on the patients with ET [4].

Methods: Two hundred twelve consecutive patients with essential tremor (ET) and forty-three control subjects were included in the study. Permission for the translation and validation of the QUEST scale was obtained. The translation was performed according to the guidelines provided by the publisher. After the translation, the final version of the scale was administered to both groups to determine its reliability and validity.

Results: The QUEST Physical, Psychosocial, communication, Hobbies/leisure and Work/finance scores were 0.967, 0.968, 0.933, 0.964 and 0.925, respectively. There were good correlations between each of the QUEST scores that were indicative of good internal consistency. Additionally, we observed that all of the QUEST scores were most strongly related to the right and left arms (p=0.0001). However, we observed that all of the QUEST scores were weakly related to the voice, head and right leg (p=0.0001).

Conclusions: In conclusion, if the scale is tested for reliability and validity and subsequently applied, it provides valid data. Thus, it is very important to evaluate ET with a specific scale because ET can cause significant disabilities in the social lives of patients. Additionally, because the QUEST scale has been reported to provide valuable data for the assessment of responses to ET treatment, a valid and reliable Turkish version will have an important place in improving patients’ clinical follow-ups.

References: 1- Deuschl G, Bain P, Brin M. Consensus statement of the Movement Disorder Society on tremor. Ad Hoc Scientific Committee. Mov Disord 1998; 13: 2–23. 2-Louis ED, Ferreira JJ. How common is the most common adult movement disorder? Update on the worldwide prevalence of essential tremor. Mov Disord 2010; 15; 25: 534-541. 3-Tröster AI, Pahwa R, Fields JA, Tanner CM, Lyons KE. Quality of life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire (QUEST): development and initial validation Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2005;11: 367-373. 4-Martínez-Martín P, Jiménez-Jiménez FJ, Carroza García E, Alonso-Navarro H, Rubio L, Calleja P, Díaz-Sánchez M, Benito-León J. Most of the Quality of Life in Essential Tremor Questionnaire (QUEST) psychometric properties resulted in satisfactory values. J Clin Epidemiol. 2010; 63: 767-773.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/turkish-version-quality-of-life-in-essential-tremor-questionnaire-quest-validity-and-reliability-study/