Fear of Movement/[Re]Injury Among Arabic Low Back Pain Patients: Establishing the Validity of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia – Arabic Version

Abstract

Objectives: Kinesiophobia is associated with pain disability across a number of physical conditions, particularly chronic low back pain [CLBP]. The Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia [TSK] is the primary instrument for assessing kinesiophobia, and was originally developed in English. The objective of this study is to establish an Arabic version of TSK [TSK-AV] with subsequent validation in Arabic patients with CLBP.

Methods: 101 CLBP patients completed the TSK-AV, demographic measures, and measures of pain severity and disability. Collected data were used for further psychometric analysis.

Results: Explorative factor analysis showed that a three-factor model provided an acceptable fit to our data, explaining 45.2% of the variance. Factor 1 [labeled as "Activity Avoidance"] comprised items 1, 2, 4, 12, 14, 15 and 17. Factor 2 was labeled as "Experience with Pain/Bodily Injury" and comprised items 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 16. Factor 3 was labeled as "Somatic Focus" and comprised items 3, 10, 11 and 13. The TSK-AV and its subscales were all independent significant [p < 0.001] predictors of pain disability in Jordanian patients with CLBP after accounting for factors such as age, gender, pain duration and pain severity.

Conclusion: The study provided the first translation of the TSK into Arabic. The TSK-AV and its subscales were each significant independent predictors of pain disability. The measure can therefore be recommended for clinical and research purposes with Arabic-speaking populations.

Keywords:

• Tampa scale of kinesiophobia
• Arabic translation
• disability
• chronic back pain
• psychometric properties

Declaration of interest

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