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

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is recognized as the most common type of neuropathies. Questionnairesare the method of choice for evaluating patients with CTS. Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (BCTS) is one of the mostfamous questionnaires that evaluate the functional and symptomatic aspects of CTS. This study was performed toevaluate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of BCTS questionnaire.Methods: First, both parts of the original questionnaire (Symptom Severity Scale and Functional Status Scale) weretranslated into Persian by two expert translators. The translated questionnaire was revised after merging and confirmedby 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 finalPersian 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 thetranslated questionnaire was refilled by few of the previous patients who had not received any medical treatment duringthat period.Results: Among all 142 patients, 13.4 % were male and 86.6 % were female. The reliability of the questionnaire wastested using Cronbach’s alpha and ICC. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.859 for symptom severity scale (SSS) and 0.878 forfunctional status scale (FSS). Also, ICCs were calculated as 0.538 for SSS and 0.773 for FSS. In addition, constructvalidities of SSS and FSS against QuickDASH were 0.641 and 0.701, respectively.Conclusion: Based on our results, the Persian version of the BCTQ is valid and reliable.