Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of the Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome Score

Background: Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is a common leg injury in military personnel and athletes and is especially related to running and jumping. A patient-reported outcome measure, the MTSS score, was developed to determine the severity of MTSS.

Purpose: To translate, culturally adapt, and validate the MTSS score for the Turkish language.

Study design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2.

Methods: Established guidelines were used for translation and adaptation. The Turkish version of the MTSS (MTSS-Tr) score was completed twice with a 1-week interval between assessments. In the first assessment, patients also completed the Turkish version of the 36-Item Short-Form Survey (SF-36-Tr) and a visual analog scale (VAS) for pain. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the MTSS-Tr were measured with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach α coefficient, respectively. The construct validity was demonstrated with the Spearman correlation coefficient (r _S).

Results: A total of 48 participants were included in the study. The test-retest reliability was good and internal consistency was good (ICC, 0.9; Cronbach α, 0.884). The MTSS-Tr score was highly negatively correlated with the physical component score of the SF-36-Tr (r _S = -0.716; P < .001). There was a moderate correlation between the MTSS-Tr score and the VAS pain score (r _S = 0.465; P = .001).

Conclusion: The translated MTSS-Tr score has good internal consistency and good reliability and validity. Therefore, the MTSS-Tr score is useful to evaluate symptoms in patients with MTSS.

Registration: NCT05400668 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier).