Translation and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Osteoarthritis Knowledge Scale Into Turkish

The Osteoarthritis Knowledge Scale (OAKS) is a validated tool for assessing knowledge about hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, to date, there has been no translation and adaptation of the OAKS for the Turkish population.

To translate and cross-culturally adapt the OAKS into Turkish and to assess its psychometric properties in the Turkish population with and without hip or knee OA.

The OAKS was translated following accepted guidelines. A validation study assessed internal consistency, test-retest reliability and measurement error. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assess the factor structure.

A total of 278 participants (n = 70 with hip OA, n = 105 with knee OA, and n = 103 without OA) were included. Internal consistency was 0.72, 0.79 and 0.79 for participants with hip OA, knee OA, and no OA, respectively. The test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.72 (95% CI; 0.45-0.85), 0.89 (95% CI; 0.82-0.93) and 0.88 (95% CI; 0.79-0.93) for participants with hip OA, knee OA and no OA, respectively. It had three principal components accounting for 57.2% of the total variance.

The Turkish version of the OAKS is a reliable and valid tool for measuring OA knowledge in the Turkish population, including those with and without hip and knee OA. Test-retest reliability was below acceptable levels in the population with hip OA only. Therefore, we recommend that the ICC be interpreted with caution when used in this population.