title: Linguistic and clinical validation of the Arabic-translated Aberdeen Menorrhagia Severity Scale as an indicator of quality of life for women with abnormal uterine bleeding.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a conceptually and semantically valid Arabic version of a validated disease-specific instrument of quality of life (QoL) for women with abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB).
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective cohort study conducted at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between December 2010 and December 2011 following ethics approval. Forward translation of the Aberdeen Menorrhagia Severity Scale (AMSS) from English into Arabic was followed by backward translation of the consensus target (Arabic) version into the source (English) language. Subsequently, a final target (Arabic) language version was created. Sixty-one Arabic-speaking women of reproductive age participated in the study. The final Arabic questionnaire was administered to 41 women with self-perceived normal menses (Group 1) on 2 occasions 2 weeks apart. Agreement in the answers deems the questionnaire reliable. The final Arabic version was administered to 20 women with self-perceived AUB (Group 2), and their scores were compared with the first response of Group 1. A significant difference between the groups deems the questionnaire valid.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For linguistic validation; intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.87 and Kappa statistics of 0.56 to 0.87 indicated good to excellent agreement. For clinical validation, there was a significant difference between Group 1 and 2 (p=0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The translated Arabic AMSS is a reliable and valid indicator of QoL in Saudi women with AUB.
authors.affiliation: Obstetrics and Gynecology, King Khalid University Hospital, PO Box 7805, Riyadh 11472, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tel. +966 (1) 4670818.  Fax. +966 (1) 4679557. E-mail:  baburafea@ksu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Basim F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Abu-Rafea
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Vilos
authors.forename: Rakia S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Al Jasser
authors.forename: Reem M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Al Anazy
authors.forename: Khalida
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Javaid
authors.forename: Hazem M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Al-Mandeel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008595:Menorrhagia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008796:Metrorrhagia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014177:Translations; D055815:Young Adult