The Fremantle Neck Awareness Questionnaire in Chronic Neck Pain Patients Turkish Version, Validity and Reliability Study

Study Design. Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric analysis. Objective. The aim of this study wad to develop "Fremantle Neck Awareness Questionnaire Turkish (FreNAQ-T)" and to investigate the validity, reliability, and psychometric properties of FreNAQ-T in the Turkish population with chronic neck pain (CNP). Summary of Background Data. As the different beliefs about the nature of the problem in chronic pain (CP) and its future consequences lead to mis-stimulated neuroplastic changes, the perceptual level and proprioceptive-awareness should be examined in CP. The perceptual level and propriceptive awareness in individuals with chronic low back pain and in knee osteoarthritis were evaluated, whereas the neck version has not been studied. Methods. The neck version was conducted using forward-backward method to translate the FreBAQ from English to Turkish. The number of the included patients was 111. The FreNAQ-T was applied to 37 patients after 3 days for test-retest reliability. Validity of the FreNAQ-T was assessed using Rasch analysis and Spearman correlation coefficient. Reliability of the FreNAQ-T's internal consistency was tested by Person Separation Index (PSI) and Cronbach Alpha. Test-retest reliability was tested by differential item functioning (DIF) by time. Results. All items of FreNAQ-T were found to fit Rasch Model (given Bonferroni adjustment fit level of 0.006 and chi(2): 6 (df = 9),P = 0.739). Internal construct validity evaluation was good, overall mean item fit residual was 0.141 (SD 1.089), and mean person fit residual was -0.211 (SD 1.173). In reliability evaluation, the PSI was 0.69 (good) and Cronbach alpha was 0.70 (acceptable). When the test-retest was examined via DIF by time, none of the items showed DIF. Conclusion. The FreNAQ-T is a valid, reliable, unidimensional scale in CNP and suitable for the assessment of neck-specified awareness-perception in Turkish population with CNP.