Cross-cultural adaptation, reliability and validity of the Persian version of the modified falls efficacy scale

Abstract

Purpose. To translate the Swedish version of the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES), the FES(S), into Persian, and to determine reliability and validity of the scale to be used for Persian speaking elderly people.

Method. The ‘forward-backward’ procedure was applied to translate the FES(S) into Persian. A methodological study was then carried out to determine the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the scale. Eighty-one community-dwelling elderly persons (≥65 years) were included.

Results. Both reliability and validity of the Persian FES(S) were found to be acceptable (Cronbach's α  ==  0.75, interclass correlation coefficients  ==  0.99, p  <  0.001 and standard errors of measurements  ==  1.82). Low to moderate negative correlations of the total score of the scale with the age of the participants and number of falls in the past year were shown. There were also low to moderate correlations between the Persian FES(S) score and the Mini-Mental State Examination score, duration of walks and physical fitness. The participants who took a daily walk, felt healthy, reported no general tiredness and who had had no fall during the past year rated their self-efficacy higher than did their peers.

Conclusions. The present study verified that the Persian FES(S) is a culturally relevant, valid and reliable tool for measuring self-perceived confidence in Iranian older adults.

Keywords:

• Elderly
• fall-related self-efficacy
• fear of falling
• reliability
• validity
• cross cultural

Acknowledgements

This study was part of a joint program between the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran and Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Sweden. It was supported financially mainly by USWR and scientifically by KI. We hereby thank all participants and experts who contributed to the execution of the study. We also thank Professor Anooshirvan Kazemnejad for providing consultation and support in statistical aspects.

Declaration of interest:

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.