Reliability and validity of the Farsi version of the standardized assessment of personality-abbreviated scale

A short screening tool for high-risk individuals with personality disorder (PD) is useful both for clinicians and researchers. The aim of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Farsi version of the Standardized Assessment of Personality-Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS).
The original English version of the SAPAS questionnaire was translated into Farsi, and then, translated back into English by two professionals. A survey was then conducted using the questionnaire on 150 clients of primary health care centers in Tabriz, Iran. A total of 235 medical students were also studied for the reliability assessment of the questionnaire. The SAPAS was compared to the short form of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The data analysis was performed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve technique, operating characteristic for diagnostic efficacy, Cronbach s alpha, and test-retest for reliability evaluation.
We found an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.566 [95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.455-0.677]; sensitivity of 0.89 and specificity of 0.26 at the cut-off score of 2 and higher. The total Cronbachs alpha coefficient was 0.38 and Cohen's kappa ranged between 0.5 and 0.8.
The current study showed that the Farsi version of the SAPAS was relatively less efficient, in term of validity and reliability, in the screening of PD in the population.