The cultural adaptation, reliability, validity of the Turkish version of the arthritis-work spillover in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: The aim of this study is to adapt cultural differences, validity and reliability of the AWS scale for Turkish society. Method: The study included 60 individuals with RA, 52 women and 8 men, with a mean age of 51.92+9.21 years. Demographic information form, Arthritis-Work Spillover (AWS) scale, Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire (DASH) and its subscale DASH-Work, Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS2), Disease Activity Score (DAS28), and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) were administered to the participants. Internal consistency analysis and test-retest method were used for reliability analysis. For the test-retest method, 30 participants were administered AWS scale again after 7 days. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed for validity analysis. For convergent and discriminant validity, Spearman correlation analysis was performed according to DASH-W, AIMS2-Role subcomponent and COPM. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between AWS scale and other scales used in the study. Results: In the reliability analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used for internal consistency and the result was 0.86. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.68 (p<0.05). In the convergent validity analysis, moderately significant positive correlations were observed between the AWS and DASH-W (r:0.528) and AIMS2-Role (r:0.486) (p<0.05); negatively moderate correlations were observed between the AWS and COPM Performance (r:-0,416) and COPM Satisfaction scores (r:-0,435)(p<0,05). With AWS scale; positively high correlations were observed between the AIMS2-Symptom, positively moderate correlations with DASH, AIMS2-Physical, AIMS2-Affective, and postively low correlations with DAS28 (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the Turkish version of the AWS sclae is a valid and reliable instrument. Key words: rheumatoid arthritis, work, functionality, validity, reliability