Translation, cultural adaptation and assessment of psychometrics properties of the Extended Version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ-E) in Persian language speaking people

• Published in: BMC musculoskeletal disorders Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 89 - 11
• Main Authors: Mokhtarinia, Hamid Reza, Hosseini, Zahra Sadat Javadi, Shokouhyan, Seyed Mohammadreza, Gabel, Charles Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 23-01-2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Absenteeism; Adaptation; Adult; Ankle; Arthritis; Bilingualism; Cross-cultural adaptation; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cultural Characteristics; Diagnosis; Evaluation; Female; Health surveys; Humans; Interpreters; Language; Male; Middle Aged; Middle Eastern People; Musculoskeletal diseases; Musculoskeletal Pain; Occupational diseases; Pain; Persian; Persian language; Physiotherapy; Psychometrics; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Risk factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Translation; Translations; Translations and translating; Validation; Validity; Workloads; Iran; Validation; Persian; Musculoskeletal Pain; Cross-cultural adaptation; Physiotherapy
• ISSN: 1471-2474; 1471-2474
• DOI: 10.1186/s12891-024-07192-9

To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Extended Version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ-E) into Persian (NMQ-E-P) and evaluate the psychometric properties in a general population with different occupational tasks across nine body regions.
This cross-sectional study was designed according to the standard guidelines and the COSMIN checklist. The NMQ-E-P was achieved through forward and backward translation methods and consensus to produce the final draft. A Persian-speaking population (n = 571, age 38.24 ± 7.65 years, female = 46.2%) was recruited from industries and office workers with three occupational task inclusion criteria: assembly, office, and lifting. Psychometric properties included validity for face (from confirmed clarity, simplicity, and readability), content (via the content validity index); and construct (through known group validity); additionally, the properties of internal consistency (Cronbach's α); and test-retest reliability (Kappa coefficient of agreement) were considered.
No significant issues during the translation process were found. The NMQ-E-P showed adequate internal consistency for all regions (α ≥ 0.87). The test-retest reliability was examined with Kappa agreement correlation coefficient and all items, except ankle regions, showed very good agreements (Kappa coefficient = 0.87-1.0). Excellent ICC values were obtained for quantitative variables (ICC > 0.88) and good construct validity was revealed (p < 0.001).
The Persian version of the NMQ-E has very good validity and reliability and can be used by researchers and professionals to evaluate the prevalence of MSDs in nine body regions simultaneously.