Evidence for reliability, validity and responsiveness of Turkish Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM)

To translate and culturally adapt the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) into Turkish and assess the psychometric properties of the translated version.

The FAAM was translated into Turkish according to Beaton's recommendations and it is called FAAM-T. Ninety-eight patients (39 males, mean ± SD age 35.0 ± 14.0 years; range 16-71 years) with different foot and ankle complaints were included, and the score was completed twice by each participant after 7 days of the first assessment to assess test-retest reliability based on the inter-rater correlation coefficient, whereas Cronbach's alpha evaluated internal consistency. External validity was evaluated with correlations between the FAAM-T, Foot Function Index (FFI) and Short Form-36 (SF-36). The distribution of floor and ceiling effects was determined.

The test-retest reliability was 0.90 for both FAAM-T subscales. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.95 and 0.91 for FAAM-T activity of daily living (ADL) and FAAM-T Sport subscales, respectively. The FAAM-T ADL and Sport subscales demonstrated very good correlation with the FFI (r = 0.70 and 0.63, respectively). The FAAM-T ADL and Sport subscales had a high level of association with physical functioning and the physical component scale (r = 0.71, r = 0.70 and r = 0.51, r = 0.55, respectively; P = 0.001) of the SF-36. The weakest associations were found between the FAAM-T ADL, FAAM-T Sport subscales and the SF-36 the vitality (r = 0.27, P = 0.008 and r = 0.28, P = 0.01, respectively).

The study provides preliminary evidence that the FAAM-T is reliable, valid and responsive outcome measurement of patients with foot and ankle pathologies.