Evaluation of the validity and reliability of the Turkish Aberdeen Varicose Vein Questionnaire in patients with chronic venous insufficiency

Patients and methods: The Turkish AVVQ consists of 13 questions about the varicose veins. The feasibility, reliability, and validity of the Turkish AVVQ in 50 patients (18 males, 32 females; mean age 31.2±7.8 years; range, 20 to 50 years) with leg venous disease were evaluated. Testing and re-testing of the Turkish AVVQ were performed at 5 to 7 day-intervals. The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was determined using the Kappa statistic. Concurrent validity was evaluated for the Venous Insufficiency Epidemiological and Economic Study (VEINES)-quality of life. Simultaneous validity was measured using the Spearman correlation coefficient.

Results: The test-retest reliability was found to be between good and excellent (Kappa 0.447-1). The validity of the Turkish AVVQ was found to be good (rho: -0.678, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Our study results show that the Turkish version of the AVVQ questionnaire is valid and reliable and that patients with venous disease can be applied in the measurement of health-related quality of life.