Validation of the Scoliosis Japanese Questionnaire-27 in Korean patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

We sought to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean adaptation of the Scoliosis Japanese Questionnaire-27 (SJ-27). This involved translating the English SJ-27 into Korean and back-translating it, followed by completing all stages of the cross-cultural adaptation process. Subsequently, the Korean SJ-27, along with the validated Scoliosis Research Society-22 (SRS-22) questionnaire, was administered to 140 consecutive idiopathic scoliosis patients wearing a brace. Reliability was determined using kappa statistics to assess agreement for each item, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Cronbach's α. Construct validity was established by comparing responses on the SJ-27 with those on the SRS-22 using Pearson's correlation coefficient. All items showed kappa statistics indicating agreement above 0.6. The SJ-27 demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (ICC=0.91). Internal consistency measured by Cronbach's α was very good (α = 0.898). The Korean version of the SJ-27 exhibited significant correlations with both the total score and individual domain scores of the SRS-22. The adapted Korean SJ-27 was effectively translated and showed acceptable measurement properties, making it suitable for assessing outcomes in Korean-speaking patients with idiopathic scoliosis.