Reliability and validity of the Korean version of the University of California-Los Angeles Scleroderma Clinical Trial Consortium Gastrointestinal Tract instrument in patients with systemic sclerosis

Abstract

Background/Aims: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is associated with a wide range of gas-trointestinal (GI) changes. The University of California-Los Angeles Scleroderma Clinical Trial Consortium Gastrointestinal Tract (UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0) instru-ment is a self-administered GI assessment instrument for patients with SSc. We developed a Korean version of the UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0 instrument and evaluated its reliability and internal consistency. Methods: The participants were 37 Korean patients with SSc. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0 were performed according to international standardized guidelines. We evaluated reproducibility by calcu-lating the intraclass correlation coefficients and assessed the internal consistency of the Korean version of the UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0. We assessed its construct valid-ity by evaluating its correlations with the Short Form Health Survey version 2 and EQ-5D scores by means of Spearman correlation analyses. Results: Patients with SSc were mostly women (89.19%) with a mean age of 52.2 years, median disease duration of 24 months, and median modified Rodnan total skin score of 4. The median total GIT score on the UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0 was 0.3. The UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0 Korean version showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of total GIT score = 0.863). Most domains of the ULCA SCTC GIT 2.0 were correlated with those of the EuroQol (EQ)-5D score. Conclusions: The Korean version of the UCLA SCTC GIT 2.0 has acceptable in-ternal consistency, reliability, and validity. Therefore, it can be used to assess GIT involvement in Korean patients with SSc.