[Linguistic adaptation into Spanish and validation of the Arthritis Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire].
OBJECTIVE
Linguistic adaptation and validation into Spanish of the ARTS questionnaire, a self reported instrument designed to measure four osteoarthritis treatment satisfaction dimensions: treatment advantages, treatment convenience, apprehension about treatment and satisfaction with medical care.


METHODS
Adaptation was performed using conceptual equivalence, supervised by a panel of 6 experts and 4 independent translators, who were in charge of performing translation and back-translation of the items. A sample of patients suffering from knee, hip or column osteoarthritis was used to estimate the psychometric properties of feasibility, reliability, validity and sensitivity to change. Three groups were identified: adequate analgesic effect and tolerability, treatment-switch because of a weak analgesic effect, and treatment- switch due to poor tolerability. The ARTS was administered at baseline, 1 week later for retest, and after 4 weeks of treatment with NSAIDs or Cox II-inhibitors.


RESULTS
A sample of 163 patients was formed (67.7 [9.2] years old). No floor or ceiling effects were found, items were well understood and non- response rates were below 1%. Cronbach's alpha for the total scales was 0.85, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.81. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 4 dimensions which were coherent with those proposed by the original authors. Concurrent validity was measured with SF-36, a pain VAS instrument, a treatment compliance VAS, and the Morisky-Green compliance questionnaire. The adapted instrument showed a good discriminatory validity, and it was able to distinguish between patients needing a change in treatment and those who did not need it. It was also sensitive to changes in patients' treatment effectiveness after a 30 days follow up.


CONCLUSIONS
A psychometrically valid and conceptually equivalent ARTS questionnaire has been produced to explore satisfaction with treatment in patients with osteoarthritis in Spanish speaking countries.
Departamento de Metodología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain. miguel.ruiz@uam.es
Miguel
M
Ruiz
Miguel A
MA
Campillo
Jordi
J
Monfort
Antonio
A
Pardob
Javier
J
Rejas
Javier
J
Soto
D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000628:therapy*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires