Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Validity and Reliability of the Igbo Version of the Brief Fear of Movement Scale for Osteoarthritis

Abstract Background; the brief fear of movement scale for knee osteoarthritis (b-FMSKOA) is a valid instrument for assessing fear of movement in individuals with OA. The objective of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the b-FMSKOA into Igbo language (b-FMSKO-I) and assess its validity and reliability in patients with knee osteoarthritis to promote its use in Igbo speaking parts of Nigeria.Methods; the original b-FMSKOA was translated and culturally adapted from English into Igbo following a standardized procedure according to Beaton et al., 2000 in seven separate processes of translation, back translation, committee review and pre-testing before being tested for psychometric quality. It was administered (within a 2day interval) to 15 consenting outpatients with knee OA who attended physiotherapy unit 3times a week in a selected South-eastern Nigerian hospital. The b-FMSKOA (English version) was correlated with the Igbo version. Results; the concurrent validity of the b-FMSKOA-I was found to be satisfactory and comparable to the original version. The correlation coefficient of the variables of interest were within the range of 0.441 and 0.998 and all showed significant correlation (p< 0.05) between the scores obtained from the English and Igbo version of the questionnaire except for the fourth item (r= 0.441; p=0.131) which showed no significant relationship. Cronbach’s alpha showed the questionnaire to reach acceptable reliability α = 0.85. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the variables of interest was within the range of 0.441 and 0.945 with the fourth and first item recording the lowest (r=0.441) and highest (r=0.945) correlation coefficient respectively. All variables showed significant correlation (p< 0.05) between the scores obtained from Igbo version of the questionnaires except for the fourth item (r= 0.441; p=0.131) which showed no significant relationshipConclusion; the b-FMSKO-I like the original version is a reliable, consistent and valid instrument that can be considered for use in South-eastern Nigeria for evidence based quality healthcare promotion in patients with knee osteoarthritis.