OBJECTIVES: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder in early childhood adversely affects the cardiac, respiratory and skeletal muscle’s function as well as aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) such as emotional and social functioning. The current study aimed to translate the disease specific Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) 3.0 DMD Module into Greek in order to assess HRQoL of patients with DMD for national and cross-national studies.

METHODS: The Greek translation of the PedsQL™ 3.0 DMD Module was performed in accordance with established guidelines using forward- back translation and was approved by the creator of the instrument. The Greek version of the module was administered to 28 participants children with DMD (aged 8-18 years) and their care givers at the patients’ organization MDA-Hellas, a non-profit association for neuromuscular disorders. The inventory is comprised of parallel child self-report and care giver proxy-report formats for children aged 8 to 18 years, and a care giver proxy-report format for children ages 5 to 7 years.

RESULTS: The module encompasses four scales: 1) Daily activities (5 items), 2) Treatment (4 items) 3) Worry (6 items) and 4) Communication (3 items). All the questions of the PedsQL™ 3.0 DMD module were translated without any major discrepancy. The results confirmed the feasibility of administering the Greek version of PedsQL 3.0 DMD Module. It has a clear focus and is concise. The results showed that patients from age 5 to 18 years DMD affects the quality of life of child as reported by parents.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of the translation procedure confirmed the feasibility of administering the Greek version of the PedsQL 3.0 Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Module questionnaire. It has a clear focus and is concise and can be used for health-related quality of life studies in Greek-speaking patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-DMD aged 5-18 years old.