Translating the Dutch Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Rising and Sitting Questionnaires into German and assessing their concurrent validity with VAS measures of pain and activity in daily living.

July 10th, 2010

Authors: Carolin Heitz, Lucas Bachmann, Anne Leibfried, Rudolf Kissling, Alfons Kessels, Roberto Perez, Johan Marinus and Florian Brunner

The Dutch Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Rising and Sitting Questionnaires are three validated instruments to measure physical activity and limitations in daily living in patients with lower extremity disorders living at home of which no German equivalents are available. Our scope was to translate the Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Rising and Sitting Questionnaires into German and to verify its concurrent validity in the two domains pain and activity in daily living by comparing them with the corresponding measures on the Visual Analogue Scale.

Methods: We translated the Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Rising and Sitting Questionnaires according to published guidelines.

Demographic data and validity were assessed in 52 consecutive patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 1 of the lower extremity. Information on age, duration of symptoms, type of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 1 and type of initiating event were obtained.

We assessed the concurrent validity in the two domains pain and activity in daily living by comparing them with the corresponding measures on the Visual Analogue Scale.

Results: We found that variability in the German Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Rising and Sitting Questionnaires was largely explained by measures of pain and activity in daily living on the Visual Analogue Scale.

Conclusion: Our study shows that the domains pain and activity in daily living are properly represented in the German versions of the Walking Stairs, Walking Ability and Raising and Sitting Questionnaires. We would like to propagate their use in clinical practice and research alike.