Transcultural adaptation and validation of the 4-Domain Sports PROM into Italian

Abstract

Objectives: This work aims to evaluate and validate the process of cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the 4-Domain Sports PROM (4-DSP) into Italian, assessing its understandability and reproducibility in all questionnaire domains for Italian-speaking patients.

Methods: Cross-sectional study, level of evidence II. The questionnaire was self-administered by 100 patients (80 males and 20 females) who had undergone anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and had a one-year minimum follow-up. The mean age and standard deviation (SD) was 31.20 ​± ​12.65 years. According to their level of sports participation, 51% were recreational, 31% were regional, 12% were national, and 6% were international athletes. All patients filled in the 4-DSP questionnaire without direct supervision of their trainer/coach or researcher. All data were collected and processed anonymously. The translation and cultural adaptation of the 4-DSP involved six phases: (1) translation, (2) synthesis, (3) back-translation, (4) pre-test, (5) expert committee review and (6) final version approval by the author of the original version for publication.

Results: The cross-cultural validation of the questionnaire 4-DSP into Italian presented a global Cronbach's alpha of 0.65, Conceptual equivalence to translation and relevance were 99.09% and 99.81%, respectively, and the percentage of agreement was 99.09%.

Conclusion: The cross-culturally validated version of the 4-DSP into Italian proved to be adequately understandable and reproducible in all questionnaire domains and can be safely and reliably used in Italian-speaking patients.

Level of evidence: Study level II.

Keywords: Health care; Outcomes and process assessment; Patient outcome assessment; Patient-reported outcome measures; Sports medicine.