Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand Questionnaire (Dash): English in to Sinhala Translation

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the original version of the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) questionnaire to the Sinhala language.Materials and Methods: Five steps were followed for the cross-cultural adaptation: forward translations into Sinhala, synthesis of the translations, back translations into English, revision by an expert committee, and field testing of the pre-final version done with 40 patients in The National Hospital of Sri Lanka (3000 bed). Psychometric characteristics of reliability and construct validity were evaluated for the final version of the Sinhala questionnaire.Results: Internal consistency of the final version was high (Cronbach's á = 0.97) and the item-total correlations were moderate (ranged from (0.48 to 0.88). Conclusion:These results are similar to previous studies undertaken on the cross cultural adaptation of the DASH questionnaire that have been accepted as being valid and reliable. This version of the DASH in Sinhala is thus considered valid and reliable.