Validation and investigation of cross cultural equivalence of the Fremantle back awareness questionnaire - German version (FreBAQ-G)

摘要

Disrupted self-perception of the low back might contribute to chronic non-specific low back pain. The Fremantle back awareness questionnaire is a simple questionnaire to assess back specific self-perception. The questionnaire has recently been translated to German (FreBAQ-G). The aim was to further investigate the psychometric properties of the FreBAQ-G, to evaluate its cross cultural validity in patients with chronic non-specific LBP and to explore potential relationships between body perception, pain, disability and back pain beliefs. In this cross-sectional multicentre study, sample data were merged with data from the validation sample of the original English version to examine cross-cultural validity. Item Response Theory was used to explore psychometric properties and differential item function (DIF) to evaluate cross-cultural validity and item invariance. Correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between altered back specific self- perception and back pain parameters. Two hundred seventy-two people with chronic low back pain completed the questionnaires. The FreBAQ-G showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha?=?0.84), good overall reliability (r?=?0.84) and weak to moderate scalability (Loevinger Hj between 0.34 and 0.48). The questionnaire showed unidimensional properties with factor loadings between 0.57 and 0.80 and at least moderate correlations (r??0.35) with pain intensity, pain related disability and fear avoidance beliefs (FABQ total - and subscores). Item and test properties of the FreBAQ-G are given. Only item 7 showed uniform DIF indicating acceptable cross-cultural validity. Our results indicate that the FreBAQ-G is a suitable questionnaire to measure back specific self-perception, and has comparable properties to the English-language version.