Cultural adaptation of the Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire in patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Turkish version study

OBJECTIVE: Cultural adaptations of the questionnaires are important for easy use. We aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Turkish Version of the Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire in patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. METHODS: To assess test-retest reliability, the Turkish “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire” and “Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand” questionnaires were answered by patients and controls and were repeated a week later. For testing internal consistency, the Cronbach's alpha test was used. For testing validity, correlations between the subscales of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire” and “Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand” questionnaire were measured in patient groups. One hundred patients with idiopathic Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and 50 healthy participants were included in the study. RESULTS: In test-retest reliability, intraclass correlations of the subscales of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire” were high. Cronbach's alphas were found to be high in all subscales. There was no significant correlation between asthetics and pain scales. We found significant differences between patients and controls regarding all subscales of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire”. Correlations between subscales of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire” and “Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand” questionnaire were significant. We found no difference between one-hand effected and two-hand effected patients, in terms of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire”, “Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand” questionnaire Function/Symptom and Work average scores. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the Turkish version of the “Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire” is reliable and valid and can be used in Turkish patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome because it is comprehensible and practicable.