Translation and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of the Arabic 5-Item Dry Eye Questionnaire: A Reliability Study in Healthy Young Adults

To translate the 5-Item Dry Eye Questionnaire (DEQ-5) into Arabic and conduct a preliminary psychometric evaluation of its reliability and internal consistency for DED symptom screening in Arabic-speaking populations.

Two native Arabic translators initially translated the DEQ-5 from English into Arabic. An interdisciplinary committee developed a unified consensus version, subsequently back-translated by two native English speakers. The finalized questionnaire was administered to 60 healthy Arabic-speaking volunteers (aged 18-40 years) by two independent observers at two sessions spaced 2-5 days apart, enabling assessment of test-retest stability under standardized, blinded administration conditions.

The participants had an average age of 21.6 ± 3.9 years, with 45% male and 55% female. Total DEQ-5 scores averaged 9.0 ± 5.2 (range: 0-19); 73.3% scored above the >6 clinical threshold. Test-retest reliability was good-to-excellent at the scale level (ICC = 0.887; 95% CI: 0.819-0.931; P < 0.001). At the item level, Spearman ρ ranged from 0.679 to 0.861, all P < 0.001, and quadratic weighted κw from 0.650 to 0.853. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's α = 0.878). Floor (10%) and ceiling effects (1.7%) were within acceptable psychometric limits.

The Arabic DEQ-5 demonstrates strong preliminary reliability and good internal consistency, supporting its application as a psychometrically evaluated screening instrument for DED symptom identification in Arabic-speaking populations. These findings provide a foundation for standardized symptom screening, cross-cultural epidemiological comparisons, and future validation studies in Arabic-speaking communities.