CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSLATION, ADAPTATION, AND VALIDATION OF STROKE-SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE SCALE AMONG AMHARIC SPEAKING STROKE SURVIVORS IN AMHARA REGIONAL STATE REFERRAL HOSPITALS, ETHIOPIA 2021

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: The stroke-specific quality of life scale is a well-known, standardized, and most comprehensive and commonly used disease-specific measure to assess the quality of life in stroke. However, all stroke-specific patient recorded outcome measures are not accessible in all languages. The availability of translated, adapted, valid and reliable Stroke specific quality of life scale in the Amharic language is fundamental to detect the effectiveness of interventions and related functional changes in stroke in clinical practices and research. Objective: To design cross-cultural translation, adaptation and validate Amharic version of Stroke specific quality of life scale among stroke survivors in Amhara regional state referral hospitals, Ethiopia 2021. Methods: A multicentre based cross-sectional study was conducted in Amhara regional state referral hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia from February to May 2021. The Stroke specific quality of life scale was translated into Amharic and then back-translated into English. An expert committee assembled to review all the translations and produced the pre-final Amharic version of the scale, followed by field testing on a sample of 15 stroke survivors. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Amharic final version of the stroke-specific quality of life scale among 245 stroke survivors recruited from four referral hospitals in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Cronbach’s alpha and Intra-class correlation coefficient were used to calculate the reliability and spearman’s correlation for the convergent construct validity of the Amharic version of the stroke-specific quality of the scale. Results:-: The Amharic version of the stroke-specific quality of life scale has shown excellent internal consistency with