Validation of the King’s Health Questionnaire for South Africa in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa

Objective. To validate the King’s Health Questionnaire for urinary incontinence in the local South African English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa female community. Design. A cohort analytical study. Setting and subjects. The study utilised a sample of convenience. Women with urinary incontinence attending the gynaecology clinic at Tygerberg Hospital, Western Cape, were invited to participate in the project. During the study period 108 patients were recruited for the study – of these 38 were Afrikaans, 34 isiXhosa and 36 English. We retested 30 of these patients, 11 in the Afrikaans group, 9 in the isiXhosa group and 10 in the English group. Methods. Data analysis was performed using the Statistica V10 statistical package for Windows. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by its internal consistency, and by measurement of its test-retest reliability. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. To measure test-retest reliability, the responses of the two questionnaires were compared through correlation analysis. Results. There was good internal consistency when comparing the different domains, except for domain 1. The slightly lower Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.6 - 0.65 for this domain are still acceptable and could possibly be explained by looking at the specific questions. In general there was good test-retest reliability when comparing the different combined domains. Conclusions. This study provides a validated English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa language version of the King’s Health Questionnaire for women with urinary incontinence in South Africa. However, some aspects of the test-retest reliability need further supporting evidence. S Afr J OG 2012;18(3):82-84. DOI:10.7196/SAJOG.498