A German version of the Extended Aberdeen Back Pain Scale: development and evaluation

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Extended Aberdeen Back Pain Scale (EABPS) is a validated, reliable, and responsive measure for spinal pain.
• No German version of the EABPS was previously available for clinical use.
• The EABPS can be utilized as a single measure for the entire spine or as three separate questionnaires for the neck, upper back, and lower back.

Purpose of the Study:

• To perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the EABPS into German (EABPS-G).
• To evaluate the EABPS-G's utility in assessing health status and disability related to back pain in German patients.
• To establish the psychometric properties of the adapted German version.

Main Methods:

• The EABPS underwent translation and cultural adaptation to create the German version (EABPS-G).
• Psychometric testing involved assessing test-retest reliability, criterion validity, and responsiveness.
• 158 outpatients with spinal pain completed the EABPS-G, with 148 undergoing retesting within 24 hours.

Main Results:

• The EABPS-G demonstrated very high test-retest reliability, with correlations ranging from 0.93 to 0.95.
• Criterion validity was supported by high correlations between the EABPS-G and both generic (SF-36) and specific (FFbH-R) measures.
• The standardized response mean (SRM) indicated remarkable responsiveness, with values from 1.36 to 1.96 across the three spinal areas.

Conclusions:

• The EABPS-G is a valid, reliable, and responsive instrument for evaluating spinal pain-related health status and disability.
• This German version facilitates intercultural comparisons with the original English EABPS.
• The EABPS-G is suitable for both assessing the current health status and measuring changes over time in German-speaking patients.