Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the extended version of the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire into Turkish

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Extended Version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ-E) for use in Turkey. Methods: The cross-cultural adaptation was achieved by translating the items from the original version, with back-translation performed by independent mother-tongue translators, followed by committee review. Reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) was examined for 132 students (97 females, 35 males; mean +/- SD age: 19.91 +/- 1.24 years, mean +/- SD body mass index: 21.77 +/- 3.31 kg/m2) who completed the NMQ-E twice (with a 1 week interval). Construct validity was analyzed with the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort questionnaire. Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) were used to estimate the test-retest reliability. All of the statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS (version 22.0). Results: The Turkish version of the NMQ-E showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach coefficient alpha=.78). The test-retest reliability was examined with PABAK and all items showed moderate to almost perfect reliability (PABAK=0.610-0.955), excellent ICC= 0.88 and good construct validity (p<0.001). Conclusions: The Turkish version of the NMQ-E has applicable psychometric properties, including good test-retest reliability, internal consistency and construct validity.