• Aharon Kessel, Yael Graif, Zahava Vadasz, Vered Schichter-Konfino, Meital Almog, Shai Cohen, Valery Teplitski, Nili Stein, Ilaria Baiardini, Marcus Maurer, and Elias Toubi.
• Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, affiliated with Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
• Isr Med Assoc J. 2016 Aug 1; 18 (8): 461-465.

BackgroundChronic urticaria (CU) is a common disabling disorder. The CU-Q2oL (Chronic Urticaria Quality of Life Questionnaire) is a specific questionnaire for evaluating quality of life in CU patients. It consists of 23 items divided into six quality-of-life dimensions. It was initially developed in Italy and later validated in other countries.ObjectivesTo validate and adapt the CU-Q2oL to the Hebrew language in order to make it suitable for use in Israel.MethodsThe CU-Q2oL questionnaire was translated to Hebrew. A group of 119 CU patients were asked to complete this version, in addition to the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Urticaria Activity Score (UAS) questionnaires. A factorial analysis was performed to identify CU-Q2oL subscales, internal consistency and convergent validity assessment, as well as factors determining quality-of-life scores.ResultsThe factor analysis identified six scales of the Israeli CU-Q2oL: (i) sleep and concentration, (ii) function and mental status, (iii) embarrassment and clothing limitations, (iv) itching, (v) eating behavior and medication side effects, and (vi) swelling, which accounted for 77% of the data variance. Five scales showed good internal consistency over 0.81. The mean ± SD score of CU-Q2oL in our patients with CIU was 41 ± 21.7. We found a strong positive correlation between the overall scores of CU-Q2oL and DLQI questionnaires (r = 0.8, P < 0.01). Additionally, we found a positive correlation between UAS and both CU-Q2oL and DLQI (r = 0.62, P < 0.01, and r = 0.53, P < 0.01, respectively).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that the Israeli CU-Q2oL questionnaire is suitable for both clinical use and research in Israel.

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