# Validation of the Thai version of the quality of recovery scale (QoR-14-Thai) after elective abdominal surgery under general anesthesia

## TL;DR

Researchers validated a Thai version of a 14-item questionnaire to measure recovery quality after abdominal surgery, finding it reliable and useful.

## Contribution

The study introduces and validates a culturally adapted Thai version of the QoR-15, resulting in a 14-item version suitable for postoperative recovery assessment.

## Key findings

- The QoR-14-Thai showed moderate convergent validity with VAS-GH and ADL checklist.
- It had excellent internal consistency, reliability, and responsiveness with high completion rates.
- The questionnaire was negatively correlated with hospital stay and ICU admission.

## Abstract

The 15-item Quality of Recovery scale (QoR-15), a short form of the QoR-40, is a widely used self-reported tool for measuring the postoperative quality of recovery. It has been translated into many languages. In this study, we aimed to validate a translated Thai version of the QoR-15 in patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery under general anesthesia.

This was a single-center observational cohort study. The QoR-15 was translated into Thai and culturally adapted, which led to the items on severe and moderate pain being merged, yielding a 14-item scale: the QoR-14-Thai. Next, the QoR-14-Thai, a checklist measuring the patients’ activities of daily living (ADL), and a 100-mm visual analog scale for assessing their global health (VAS-GH) were administered to the study patients before and 24 h after their abdominal surgery. The validity, reliability, responsiveness, and feasibility of the QoR-14-Thai were assessed.

Among 166 patients, 140 completed the questionnaires, achieving a questionnaire completion rate of 100%. We observed moderate convergent validity between the postoperative QoR-14-Thai and the VAS-GH (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) and ADL checklist (r = 0.50, p < 0.001). The QoR-14-Thai was negatively correlated with the length of hospital stay (r = − 0.23, p < 0.006) and postoperative admission to the intensive care unit (r = − 0.85, p = 0.001). The QoR-14-Thai had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.869), split-half reliability (0.913), test–retest reliability (0.94), and high responsiveness (Cohen’s effect size: 1.01, standardized response mean: 0.73). The median time to complete the questionnaire was 2 min (interquartile range: 1–2).

The QoR-14-Thai was deemed a valid, reliable, and convenient tool for evaluating the quality of recovery after elective abdominal surgery.

This study was registered prospectively on the Thai Clinical Trials Registry, identifier TCTR20210326009, on March 26, 2021.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12871-025-03044-8.