title: Translation and validation study of the Persian version of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) has not been translated and validated for Persian-speaking patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. This was to provide a validated instrument to measure functional disability and health-related quality of life in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in Iran. The aim of this study was to culturally adapt and validate the AIMS2 for Persian-speaking patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  A consecutive sample of patients with knee osteoarthritis were asked to complete the AIMS2, the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and four visual analog scales for pain, joint stiffness, patient's and physician's global assessment. Internal consistency and convergent validity were applied to examine psychometric properties of the AIMS2. In addition, 30 randomly selected patients were asked to complete the questionnaire two days later for the second time for test-retest reliability. Finally factor structure of the Persian AIMS2 was performed using the principal component factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all 230 patients were entered into the study. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 56.9 (8.7) years and the mean (SD) duration of disease was 7.2 (3.5) years. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for the Persian AIMS2 scales ranged from 0.74 to 0.92 and 0.85 to 0.96, respectively. The correlation between most of the Persian AIMS2 scales and the physical and mental summary scores of the SF-36 and the visual analogue scales for pain, joint stiffness, patient's and physician's global assessment were statistically significant indicating a good convergent validity (p < 0.05). The results obtained from factor analysis indicated three latent factors that jointly accounted for 67.5% of the total variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that the Persian AIMS2 had reasonably good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. It is simple and easy to use and now can be applied in the future studies in Iran. However, its sensitivity to change needs still to be studied.
authors: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. jmousavi@razi.tums.ac.ir
authors: Sayed Javad
authors: SJ
authors: Mousavi
authors: Mohamad
authors: M
authors: Parnianpour
authors: Ahmad Reza
authors: AR
authors: Askary-Ashtiani
authors: Mohamad Reza
authors: MR
authors: Hadian
authors: Abdolrahman
authors: A
authors: Rostamian
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Montazeri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires