OBJECTIVE:

There are lots of study shows that having an ostomy is affects patients quality of life. However, the instruments used in the majority of these studies have not been validated specifically for stoma patients. The present study, examined the reliability and validity of the Quality Life Scale on a Turkish sample, which is a scale developed by Baxter and et all (2006), designed to assess psychosocial adjustment in patients with ostomy.

METHODS:

The adaptation of the scale was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the language adaptation was made. Language adaptation was made by 5 language experts as from English to Turkish and retranslated. The scale was made up of 21 items and 4 sub factors. In the second one, data was gathered in order to test the validity and reliability of the scale. Seventy patients followed in the Stomatheraphy unit of Gazi University, Centre for Health Researches and Applications were included in the study and the inventory was applied through a face to face interview method twice in the intervals of three weeks.

RESULTS:

Average age of patients was 57.8 ± 12.9 with 58.5% male, and 57.1% had a permanent colostomy, 14.3% had a temporary colostomy, 5.7% had a permanent ileostomy, 5.7% had a temporary ileostomy and 17.1% had urostomy. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was applied to the new model that was obtained through the changes. All the coefficients were significant (p<0.01). The overall scale coefficient was 0.87. The overall correlation coefficient obtained through test-retest method in the scale was 0.85.

CONCLUSION:

The results of the research show that Quality Life Scale was found a valid and reliable instrument for Turkish society. Multi-center studies are recommended by using the Ostomy quality of life scale.

Keywords: Ostomy, quality of life, scale