Cultural and linguistic validation of acne-QoL in French

Background: Acne-Quality of Life (acne-QoL) is a facial acne-specific quality-of-life instrument developed in English.

Objective: Our objective was to translate and validate acne-QoL in French and to establish the reliability and responsivity of this measure.

Methods: Acne-QoL was translated into French (acne-QoLfr) in accordance with international methodological recommendations. The validated French version of the Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADIfr) was used as a comparator. Acne patients in Quebec (n = 20) and France (n = 14) completed the acne-QoLfr and CADIfr on three occasions over 3 months (day 0, day 2-3, day 60-90).

Results: A total of 34 patients were recruited. Pearson's correlation for total acne-QoLfr scores at day 0 and day 2-3 was 0.77. Of the four domains comprising the acne-QoLfr, correlations were highest for symptoms (0.85) and lowest for the role-emotional domain (0.66). At day 60-90, total acne-QoLfr scores increased by a mean of 19.7 points, reflecting improved quality-of-life with acne therapy and demonstrating responsivity of the instrument.

Conclusion: Acne-QoLfr is a linguistically and culturally validated tool for facial acne that is both reliable and responsive.