Modification, cultural adaptation and validation of burn specific health scale-brief (BSHS-B) for Hindi speaking...

The burn specific health scale-brief (BSHS-B) has found wide acceptance as a quality of life (Qol) assessment tool. However, BSHS has rarely been employed in a very low income country like India, where burns is endemic and burns are more severe.

To modify, culturally adapt and to translate BSHS-B in Hindi.

Five questions were added to the original BSHS-B (40 questions). Two questions on walking and squatting were added to the domain 'simple abilities' which was renamed 'simple abilities and mobility'; a question on itching was added to domain of 'heat sensitivity' which was renamed 'skin sensitivity'; and two questions on family income and assets were added to the domain of 'work', which was renamed 'work and economic impact'. The modified assessment scale was accorded an acronym BSHS-RBA (revised brief and adapted). Twenty patients of thermal burns (mean age 30.95 yr) with mean TBSA burns of 39.75%, and who were between six months to a year from healing of burn wounds were included in this validation study. All questionnaires were filled by interviews.

The kappa value for inter-rater variability was 0.748. The Cronbach's α for internal consistency of various domains ranged from 0.443 (simple abilities and mobility) to 0.908 (sexuality), the scale showed good discriminant validity in 31 of 36 domain correlations, which confirms the construct validity of the instrument.

BSHS-RBA with five additional items, on mobility, economic impact and itch is a reliable and valid instrument. It is currently seen to be very useful in assessment of Qol in low income countries.