Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory – Short Form into Yoruba Language

Abstract

Objective: Validated multidimensional fatigue assessment instruments are few. Availability of the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) in different linguistic and cultural contexts will promote its applicability. This study was aimed to translate, cross culturally adapt, and psychometrically evaluate the Yoruba version of MFSI-SF.

Methods: The translation of the MFSF-SF to Yoruba language followed standard guidelines of forward and back-translation, synthesis, expert review and pilot testing. Thereafter, 32 consenting stroke survivors participated in the psychometric evaluation of the Yoruba version of MFSF-SF for validation, while 15 of them participated in the test-retest. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, percentages and plots were used to summarize data. Inferential statistics of Pearson product-moment correlation, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, One-way analysis of variance, T-test, Confidence Interval, Cronbach's alpha, Intraclass correlation coefficient, Confirmatory factor analysis were used. Alpha level was set at p<0.05.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 56.5 years. The mean score for the subscales of MFSI-SF Yoruba version ranged from 5.81–13.0. The total MFSI-SF score was 15.6, while the skewness scores range from -0.133 to 1.157, only one subscale yielded negative skew. The divergent validity (-0.015–0.526), convergent validity (-0.341–0.446), known-group validity (no age/gender difference) were satisfactory. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates that all model fit for all subscales was good. The Cronbach's alpha and Intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.829 to 0.974 and from 0.708 to 0.949 respectively.

Conclusion: The Yoruba version of the MFSI-SF is satisfactory and psychometric sound to assess fatigue, especially among stroke survivors.