Translation and Validation of the Persian Version the Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is recognized as the most common type of neuropathies. Questionnaires are the method of choice for evaluating patients with CTS. Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (BCTS) is one of the most famous questionnaires that evaluate the functional and symptomatic aspects of CTS. This study was performed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of BCTS questionnaire.
First, both parts of the original questionnaire (Symptom Severity Scale and Functional Status Scale) were translated into Persian by two expert translators. The translated questionnaire was revised after merging and confirmed by an orthopedic hand surgeon. The confirmed questionnaire was interpreted back into the original language (English) to check any possible content difference between the original questionnaire and its final translated version. The final Persian questionnaire was answered by 10 patients suffering from CTS to elucidate its comprehensibility; afterwards, it was filled by all 142 participants along with the Persian version of Quick-DASH questionnaire. After 2 to 6 days the translated questionnaire was refilled by few of the previous patients who had not received any medical treatment during that period.
Among all 142 patients, 13.4 % were male and 86.6 % were female. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach’s alpha and ICC. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.859 for symptom severity scale (SSS) and 0.878 for functional status scale (FSS). Also, ICCs were calculated as 0.538 for SSS and 0.773 for FSS. In addition, construct validities of SSS and FSS against QuickDASH were 0.641 and 0.701, respectively.
Based on our results, the Persian version of the BCTQ is valid and reliable.