Translation of the fear avoidance beliefs questionnaire into Hausa language

Self-report measures of fear-avoidance beliefs are widely used in clinical practice and research. To date there is no Hausa version of the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ). This is important as the Hausa language is a widely spoken language in West Africa.

The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the Hausa version of the FABQ in patients with non-specific neck pain.

Two independent bilingual Hausa translators translated the English version of the FABQ into Hausa which was thereafter back translated by one independent bilingual translator. A professional expert panel revised the translations to produce a consensus version. The psychometric testing of the final translated instrument was investigated by surveying 54 Hausa speaking patients with chronic non-specific neck pain. Cross-sectional construct validity was evaluated by comparing Hausa Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ-H) with the English version of the FABQ. Internal consistency of the FABQ-H was examined by Cronbach alpha by comparing the scores between the FABQ-H and its subscales. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by administering the Hausa version twice.

The translated Hausa version of FABQ proved to be acceptable. The FABQ-H showed strong correlations (r=0.94, p=0.000) with the original English version. There was also high internal consistency between the FABQ-H and its subscales (physical activity component-alpha=0.88, p=0.000 and work component- alpha=0.94, p= 0.000). The FABQ-H also showed a high test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient =0.98).

The FABQ-H demonstrated excellent psychometric properties similar to other existing versions. The FABQ-H is recommended for clinical practice.