[Sinicization, cross-cultural adjustment and reliability and validity test of the Burnt Hand Outcome Tool]

Objective: To introduce the Burnt Hand Outcome Tool (BHOT) into China to conduct sinicization, cross-cultural debugging, and test the reliability and validity, thus provide a reference for the evaluation of treatment effect and making of medical decisions of hand burn patients. Methods: The cross-sectional research was conducted. After obtaining the authorization of the original author, the Brislin translation mode was used to literally translate, synthesize, back-translate, and be checked by experts to form the Chinese version of BHOT (C-BHOT) 2. Ten experts in the field of burn rescue and treatment were invited by purpose sampling method to conduct cross-cultural debugging to form C-BHOT 3. A total of 21 hand burn patients who were treated in General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University from January to March 2020 and conformed to the inclusion criteria were selected by accidental sampling method for pre-testing. Then the final version of C-BHOT 4 was formed. Hospitalized patients who met the selection criteria were recruited using accidental sampling, multi-site and cross-regional survey method from May 2020 to March 2021 in General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University, the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University (the Third Military Medical University), and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University. The survey was performed with the general information questionnaire and C-BHOT 4. Critical ratio method and correlation coefficient method were used for item analysis, Cronbach's α coefficient test tool was used to test internal consistency, test-retest reliability was used to judge the stability of the tool, content validity index analysis tool was used to analyze the content validity, and exploratory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the structure. Data were statistically analyzed with independent sample t test or Pearson correlation analysis. Results: After the sinicization, cross-cultural debugging, and pre-testing, C-BHOT 4 was formed with a total of 20 items. All items were adjusted to positive scoring, and 7 modifications were made on the basis of the original tool. A total of 353 questionnaires were issued in the formal survey, and 344 valid questionnaires were returned, with an effective response rate of 97.45%. In the 344 patients, there were more male patients (297 patients) than female patients (47 patients), with ages of 23 to 57 years. The critical ratios of each item in the item analysis ranged from 5.48 to 12.59 (P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in the scores between patients in high-score group and low-score group (t=-10.72--2.84, P<0.05 or P<0.01). There was significant positive relationship among the scores of each two items and between scores of each item and the overall tool score (r=0.68-0.71, 0.47-0.63, P<0.05 or P<0.01). In reliability test, the Cronbach's α coefficient of the whole tool was 0.837, and the test-retest reliability was 0.702-0.793. In validity test, the content validity index of whole tool was 0.923. The exploratory factor analysis extracted 3 common factors, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 76.162%. The comparative fit index in the confirmatory factor analysis was 0.924. Conclusions: After the BHOT tool being sinicized, cross-culturally debugged, pre-tested, and tested for reliability and validity, it was verified that C-BHOT 4 has good reliability and validity in assessing the outcome of Chinese hand burn patients, and therefore can be used as an effective tool for the evaluation.