Translation and validation of the Intermittent Catheterisation Difficulty Questionnaire (ICDQ) in an Arabic population

Objective: To translate and validate linguistically an Arabic version of the Intermittent Catheterisation Difficulty Questionnaire (ICDQ) adapted to the Tunisian population. Patients and methods: An Arabic translation and cultural adaptation of the ICDQ was obtained via the reverse translation method after two sets of comprehension tests within two groups of 10 patients. Psychometric validation included testing the questionnaire on a group of 30 patients. Intra-rater reliability was evaluated by the calculation of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for each item of the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α was used to assess internal consistency. Results: The study included 30 patients (seven females, 23 males) with a mean (SD) age of 40.6 (15.3) years. The ICC was 0.96, demonstrating excellent intra-rater reliability. Cronbach’s α was 0.96 (>0.9) confirming an excellent correlation between the different items. Conclusion: This work provides a translated, validated and Tunisian adapted version of the ICDQ that can be used to evaluate Tunisian patients’ difficulties with clean intermittent self-catheterisation in daily practice. We expect that this version will also be helpful for patients in other Arabic and North African countries, although such a hypothesis needs to be confirmed by further studies. Abbreviations: CISC: clean intermittent self-catheterisation; ICDQ: Intermittent Catheterisation Difficulty Questionnaire; ASIA: American Spinal Injury Association; ICC: intraclass correlation coefficient