Reliability and Validity of a Thai Version of the Berlin Questionnaire in Patients with Sleep Disordered Breathing
Surapon Suksakorn MD*, Pimon Rattanaumpawan MD**, Wish Banhiran MD***, Nitipatana Cherakul MD**, Wattanachai Chotinaiwattarakul MD*
Affiliation : * Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand ** Division of Respiratory, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand *** Department of Ear Nose Throat, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To assess the validity and test-retest reliability of a Thai version of the Berlin Questionnaire in patients with sleep
disorder breathing.
Martial and Method: Patients who were suspected of sleep disordered breathing attending the outpatient department of
Siriraj Hospital and who had undergone polysomnography were recruited and asked to complete a Thai version of the Berlin
questionnaire. Each participant was asked to repeat the same questionnaire over the next 2-4 weeks for test-retest reliability.
Results : One hundred and thirty-two patients completed the present study. The age range of the patients was 26-72 years
(mean, 48.15+8.80 years). All 10 items of the Thai version of the Berlin questionnaire were moderately correlated in internal
consistency (Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient = 0.68). The test-retest reliability of the Thai version of the Berlin
questionnaire was investigated in 98 patients and demonstrated a high degree of reliability in intra class correlation (ICC =
0.97).
Conclusion : The present study reveals, for the first time, that the Thai version of the Berlin questionnaire has satisfactory
validity and reliability when compared to the original English version.
Keywords : Obstructive sleep disordered breathing, Obstructive sleep apnea, Berlin questionnaire, Thai version of Berlin questionnaire
