Translation and cultural adaptation of the quality of communication questionnaire for ICU family members in Korea

Background There are no Korean instruments to assess the concepts associated with end-of-life communication quality. Objectives To translate and culturally adapt the Quality of Communication (QOC) questionnaire into Korean and evaluate its acceptability and internal consistency. Methods We first translated the QOC from English into Korean, then back-translated from Korean to English, and evaluated the cultural appropriateness of the items. We pretested and refined the Korean version of the QOC with 11 ICU family members. Subsequently, the Korean version of the QOC was administered to 62 family members of chronically critically ill patients recruited from 10 ICUs to evaluate its internal consistency. Results Participants completed the Korean QOC without difficulty during the pretest, and it showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥0.85). Conclusion This study provided preliminary evidence of the acceptability and reliability of the Korean QOC in ICU family members. Nonetheless, further evaluation, including item relevance and other psychometric properties, is warranted.