Cross-cultural adaptation and reliability of patient asthma knowledge questionnaire in the regional Indian language Marathi: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: patient education is the cornerstone of the clinical management of bronchial asthma. The patient asthma knowledge questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to assess the disease specific knowledge in the patients with bronchial asthma. To the best of our knowledge and literature search, there is no tool available in Marathi language to assess the knowledge of bronchial asthma in patients.

Methods: standard translation guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation were followed. Forward and backward translations were performed by the eligible translators (T1 and T2) as per the guidelines. Synthesis of the translated versions was performed by translators and recording observer (T12). Recommendations by the expert committee were done to develop a pre-final version. The pre-final version was then tested on 30 individuals with bronchial asthma. The reliability of the translated version was assessed by the internal consistency and intra-class correlation coefficient.

Results: thirty (30) bronchial asthma patients were recruited (with a mean age of 63SD±14.36, 16 males and 14 females) to test the pre-final version, and probing of each item was done to test the equivalence. It showed that the patient comprehended the intent behind each inquiry, and that was gauged on the Likert scale. A total of 102 adults (60.8% female and 39.2% male) with a mean age of 41±11 years were included in the study to examine test-retest reliability. Between the total scores obtained from the first and second applications of the questionnaire within a two-week period, there was no discernible variation. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach´s alpha) was 0.79 and the Intra-class correlation coefficient was 1.000.

Conclusion: Marathi Version of the patient asthma knowledge questionnaire (PAKQ) is cross-culturally adapted and reliable; it will prove to be a beneficial tool to assess the disease-specific knowledge of bronchial asthma.