Evaluating the reliability and validity of the Urdu translation of Nijmegen questionnaire for patients with hyperventilation syndrome

Background & Objective: Nijmegen Questionnaire (NQ) was developed in order to screen hyperventilation syndrome (HVS) and for better understanding of its questions and in lieu with the patient-centric model, it has been translated into other languages. This study aimed at translating English version of NQ in to Urdu and for evaluating the reliability and validity of Urdu based NQ (UNQ) in healthy population and in patients with hyperventilation. Methodology: This study followed cross sectional design with non-probability convenient sampling technique. Study was completed over the period of 6 months w.e.f. 19th June, 2021 and recruited a total of 70 participants (50 with HVS and 20 healthy people) after getting approvals from pulmonary department based in a government hospital and institutional ethical research board committee. Urdu translation of NQ was a four steps process involving two bilingual translators and a backward translation. Intra class correlation coefficient (ICC), Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson Correlation and content validity index were utilized for assessing reliability and validity. Results: ICC was 0.96, representing good test re-test reliability. The reliability and internal validity gave a value of 0.96. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were measured at 0.78 for tightness across chest and 0.82 for shortness of breath. Conclusion: UNQ is a valid assessment tool for the patients with HVS. It represented overall good reliability, content and construct validity. Abbreviations: ICC - Intra class correlation coefficient; NQ - Nijmegen Questionnaire; UNQ - Urdu based NQ; Keywords: Hyperventilation, Translation, Questionnaire, Language, Urdu. Citation: Ilyas S, Ul Ain Q, Masood R, Sajjad Y, Habib A, Zahid SZ. Evaluating the reliability and validity of the Urdu translation of Nijmegen questionnaire for patients with hyperventilation syndrome. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2024;18(6):1023-1028; DOI: 10.35975/apic.v28i6.2610 Received: July 15, 2024; Reviewed: October 03, 2024; Accepted: October 03, 2024