OBJECTIVES : The 15D is a quality of life questionnaire that contains 15 questions with a 5 response options scale, about what patients think regarding their health status. The aim of the study is to translate and cultural adapt the 15D in Romanian, in order to perceive all the elements from the questions as they are in English.

METHODS : The standard procedure used is the forward-backward translation with high qualified personnel. The study had two native speakers of the target language (Romanian) and two English natives. The translation coordinator compares the two forward translations. After each step, a report is made to note all the discrepancies found and to produce a single version of the questionnaire. Each report had 5 categories that need to be completed: semantic difficulties, conceptual difficulties, consistency (same expressions), scaling (same intensity) and cultural diversity. The final version of the Romanian translated questionnaire was pilot tested on 25 respondents (8 patients and 17 healthy people) with different educational backgrounds (student, housewife, psychologist, doctor, driver, pharmacist or economist: 7 males and 18 females).

RESULTS : Minor differences were encountered between the two forward translations. The translators discussed these difference to form RO_Version One. This version was translated back to English. Some of the translations were more literal and we decided to keep the translation that is more fluent and easier to understand, resulting RO_Version Two. The pilot test evaluated the clarity, naturalness, and adequacy of wording; also any item which responders thought was inappropriate was recorded by the researcher. The mean age of interviewers was 42.32±20.36 years (range 21 to 75 years). They found the survey items easy to understand and respond to, with minor adjustments.

CONCLUSIONS : The Romanian version of the 15D quality of life questionnaire is a simple and quick screening tool with about 11.96±4.54 min administration time for measuring QoL.