Validation of the Turkish Version of the Quality of Recovery-15 Questionnaire

Objectives: The aim of this study was to perform a cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15) questionnaire in Türkiye.
Methods: The QoR-15 was translated into Turkish through a rigorous process involving independent translations, consensus, forward–backward translation, and review. The questionnaire was administered to patients undergoing major abdominal surgery preoperatively and on postoperative days 1, 7, and 30. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α, McDonald’s Omega, and the inter-item correlation coefficient. Construct validity was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and responsiveness was analyzed using Cohen's effect size and the standardized response mean (SRM).
Results: A total of 510 patients participated in the study; 335 (65.69%) were <65 years old, and 279 (54.71%) were male. The Turkish version of QoR-15 (QoR-15T) demonstrated good internal consistency, with Cronbach's α values of 0.896 and 0.888 for preoperative and postoperative administrations, respectively, and McDonald’s Omega coefficients of 0.894 and 0.878. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor (two-dimensional) structure of the QoR-15T. The comparative fit indices for Models 1 and 2 were 0.970 and 0.991, respectively. QoR-15T showed responsiveness to changes in health status, with Cohen's effect size (1.22) and the standardized response mean (1.18) indicating its ability to detect clinically important changes.
Conclusion: The QoR-15T is a reliable, valid, and responsive questionnaire for assessing the quality of recovery in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. Its ability to capture patients' perspectives and multidimensional aspects of recovery makes it a valuable tool for clinical and research purposes.

Keywords: Major abdominal surgery, patient-reported outcome, QoR-15, quality of recovery, validation