Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the 9-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire: the entire process from translation to validation

OBJECTIVE: To translate the German 9-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) to Arabic and assess its psychometric properties for measuring Arabic-speaking patients' perceptions of the shared decision-making (SDM) process. DESIGN: Multicentre cross-sectional study. SETTING: Secondary healthcare settings; outpatient clinics of 10 major hospitals were selected in four emirates in the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain). PARTICIPANTS: Patients with chronic diseases who attended outpatient clinics of participating hospitals. MEASUREMENTS: The original German SDM-Q-9 was translated to Arabic. International multiphase translation guidelines and the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-reported measures were used. Various psychometric properties were assessed, including reliability (internal consistency), and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis [EFA] and confirmatory factor analysis [CFA]). RESULTS: The final Arabic version of the SDM-Q-9 was tested among 516 secondary care patients. Internal consistency yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.929 for the whole scale. EFA showed a one-factorial solution, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.907 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ(2)=3413.69, df=36, p<0.0005). For the CFA, two different models were tested; Model 1 included the nine items and Model 2 was monofactorial that included items 2–9 and thus excluded item 1. Both models were adequate as they produced similar indices. CONCLUSIONS: The Arabic version of SDM-Q-9 showed excellent reliability and acceptable validity parameters among secondary care patients. The newly translated Arabic questionnaire is the first psychometrically tested tool that can be used in the 22 member states of the Arab league to assess patients’ perspectives on the SDM process.