title: Validation of the Italian version of the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System.
abstract: The Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (SFGS) is one of the most employed scales to assess the severity of facial palsy. The aim of our study was to produce an Italian version of the SFGS and of its explanatory criteria, and to test their measurement properties when employed by Italian physicians. A multidisciplinary committee translated and adapted the scale and its criteria into Italian. Six native Italian physicians, four of whom experienced in facial palsy and two novices, rated independently 29 videos of facial palsy patients twice. Internal consistency, agreement and repeatability were evaluated. The Italian version of the SFGS showed a high degree of internal consistency with a Cronbach's α of 0.91. The test-retest reliability was high for both inter-rater and intra-rater measures with an ICC of 0.96 and 0.98, respectively. The scores given by the novice physicians were comparable with the scores given by the expert physicians. Our study suggests that the Italian version of the SFGS has excellent internal consistency and reproducibility, comparable to the original scale. Our study confirms in an independent case record the high measurement properties of SFGS and provides the first validated Italian scale for the assessment of facial palsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical, Resuscitation, Rehabilitation and Transplant Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pavese
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tinelli
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Furini
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbamonte
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giromini
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sala
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Silvestri
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cecini
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dalla Toffola
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005145:Face; D005158:Facial Paralysis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014741:Video Recording