Roscher P.1,2
1Private Practice, Physiotherapy, Durban, South Africa, 2University of KwaZulu-Natal, Physiotherapy, Durban, South Africa
Background: Low back pain is a debilitating condition worldwide. The management of low back pain patients can be very effective, especially if the correct approach to management is followed from the onset. The STarT Back Tool is a validated quick and easy self-administered questionnaire that enables clinicians to stratify a patient's management option according to their score achieved when they have completed the questionnaire. This effective stratification tool is however not available in the Afrikaans language, the third most spoken language in South Africa. Afrikaans speaking low back pain patients cannot be assessed and stratified with the original English version, as the effectiveness of any questionnaire is dependent on the culture and language of the target population that it is attempting to assess.
Purpose: The aim of this study is to produce a culturally adapt and linguistically translate the English original version of the STarT Back Tool into Afrikaans. The purpose of the study was to successfully use the 6 stage process described by Beaton et al. 2007 to translate and culturally adapt the English STarT Back tool into Afrikaans.
Methods: The cross cultural adaptation and translation of the STarT Back Tool will be performed by using the methods outlined by Beaton et al. 2007. It can be outlined as the following 6 stage process with regards to producing the Afrikaans version of the STarT Back Tool: Stage 1: Translation,Stage 2: Synthesis , Stage 3: Back Translation, Stage 4: Expert Committee Review, Stage 5: Pre-Testing, Stage 6: Final Stage.
Results: The result of this study was a linguistically translated and culturally adpated Afrikaans version of the STarT Back Tool.
Conclusion(s): The English version of the STarT Back Tool was successfully translated into Afrikaans.
Implications: Afrikaans LBP patients can now successfully use the STarT Back Tool and participate in accurate risk stratification for their LBP.
Funding acknowledgements: I received full funding from the University of KwaZulu-Natal to conduct my research.
Topic: Musculoskeletal: spine
Ethics approval: Full ethical clearance was granted on 10 May 2016 from the Humanities ans Social Sciences Ethics Committee (Reg No: HSS/0171/016M)
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
