CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF THE SPA THERAPY CHECKLIST (SPAC) IN GREEK

E.A. Tsounia¹, K. Chandolias¹, V. Stefanouli¹, N. Strimpakos^1,2

¹University of Thessaly, Department of Physiotherapy, Lamia, Greece, ²University of Manchester, Division of Musculoskeletal & Dermatological Sciences, UK, United Kingdom

Background: Spa Therapy is referred to as the use of thermal mineral waters from natural sources with a minimum water temperature of 20°C and a minimum mineral water concentration of 1 g/l. Spa therapy is becoming increasingly significant as medical professionals pay more attention to the range of health problems it might treat. In recent years, lots of studies have been conducted in the scientific field of balneotherapy. There is a need to comprehend the quality of the research in the available literature and how it might help practitioners in promoting evidence-based practice and in balneotherapy research. Currently, one tool that has been proposed to assess the quality of reports of interventional studies in balneotherapy is the SPAC quality assessment tool. This checklist consists of 19 items/questions covering all variables involved and described in balneotherapy research.

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the SPAC assessment tool into Greek and to assess the reliability and criterion validity of the assessment tool.

Methods: The translation into Greek was performed with the accepted international methodology by the research team (ET, KX, SV). The reliability assessment was conducted using test-retest and inter-rater reliability tests and the criterion validity was assessed by comparing its outcomes to those of the original English version. Fifteen balneotherapy RCTs papers were randomly selected for the assessments. Analysis was performed in IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26.0) using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cohen kappa (k) indexes for both the total score and per item values. Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05.

Results: According to the findings, the SPAC checklist was successfully translated and modified into Greek without any issues between the translators, as it is a small and easy-to-use tool. Excellent test-retest (ICC=.98) and interrater (ICC=.95) index reliability for the SPAC total score was found. The Cohen kappa index for both intrarater and interrater reliability per item ranged from 0.61 to 1. The evaluation of the Greek SPAC checklist's criterion validity for the total score was similarly essentially flawless (ICC=.98). The per item analysis revealed a Cohen kappa ranged from 0.76 to 1.

Conclusions: The SPAC checklist's Greek translation was determined to be an understandable, reliable, and valid tool for evaluating the quality of interventional trial reports on the efficacy of spa therapy for treatment and health improvement in the current investigation. Making translations into other languages would be essential to enabling researchers from many countries to assess the quality of literature in the topic of balneotherapy.

Implications: Greek researchers planning to establish a research protocol for each disease in balneotherapy may find the assessment instrument SPAC checklist to be a valuable tool for assessing the literature.

Funding acknowledgements: Framework "Smart Tourist".Co-financed by Greece and EU (European Regional Development Fund) NSRF 2014-2020, MIS 5047243.

Keywords:
balneotherapy
spa therapy
cross-cultural

Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Older people

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: This study is a systematic review and was carried out with studies in balneotherapy. All the clinical outcomes did not have any human subjects as samples for the study.