The Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview Short Form (ZBI-12) in spouses of Veterans with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury, Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version

Background:  To test the psychometric properties of the Persian version of Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12) in the Iranian opulation.  Methods: After translating and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire into Persian, 100 caregiver spouses of Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) veterans with chronic spinal cord injury who live in the city of Mashhad, Iran, invited to participate in the study. The Persian version of ZBI-12 accompanied with the Persian SF-36 was completed by the caregivers to test validity of the Persian ZBI-12.A Pearson`s correlation coefficient was calculated for validity testing.In order to assess reliability of the Persian ZBI-12, we administered the ZBI-12 randomly in 48 caregiver spouses again 3 days later. Results:  Generally, the internal consistency of the questionnaire was found to be strong (Cronbach’s alpha 0.77). Intercorrelationmatrix between the different domains of ZBI-12 at test-retest was 0.78. The results revealed that majority of questions the Persian ZBI_12 have a significant correlation to each other. In terms of validity, our results showed that there is significant correlations between some domains of the Persian version the Short Form Health Survey -36 with the Persian Zarit Burden Interview such as Q1 with Role Physical (P=0.03),General Health (P=0.034),Social Functional (0.037), Mental Health (0.023) and Q3 with Physical Function (P=0.001),Viltality (0.002), Socil Function (0.001).  Conclusions:  Our findings suggest that the Zarit Burden Interview Persian version is both a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the burden of caregivers of individuals with chronic spinal cord injury.