Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Argentine "American Shoulder and elbow surgeons, patient self-report section" questionnaire.

Background: American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons questionnaire (ASES-p) has been translated into Spanish, but it has not been adapted to the Argentine population yet. Although Spain and Argentina speak the same language, linguistic differences between Spanish-speaking countries may affect the interpretation of the different items included in the questionnaire.

Objective: To conduct the translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the self-report section of the ASES-p into Argentine Spanish for patients with musculoskeletal shoulder disorders, and to assess its psychometric properties.

Design: Study of diagnostic accuracy/assessment scale.

Method: The study was carried out in three consecutive phases: translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation for its use in Argentina. In the third phase, we used the ASES-p, Short Form 36 (SF-36), EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaires, and the Global Rating of Change (GROC) scale.

Results: One hundred three participants completed a set of questionnaires on two occasions and were included in the final analysis. The time taken to answer and score the questionnaire was 118 and 52 s, respectively. Neither a ceiling nor a floor effect was observed. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.85. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.83. A significant correlation was found between the DASH, the GROC and various SF-36 subscales. There were strong indices of concurrent-cross validation, longitudinal validity, and construct validity. The ASES-p questionnaire showed a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) value of 7.88 points.

Conclusion: Some psychometric properties in reliability and validity were acceptable in the Argentine version of the ASES-p questionnaire.