Cross-cultural Adaptation of Self-report S4-5 Sensory and Motor Function Questionnaire (S4-5Q) in People with Spinal Cord Injury to Portuguese

Objective The “Self-report S4-5 sensory and motor function questionnaire (S4-5Q)” is a short questionnaire that aims to assess the function of the sacral segments, S4 and S5, after a spinal cord injury (SCI), with the purpose of replacing the rectal exam test. The aim of the present study was to carry out a cross-cultural adaptation of the S4-5Q to the Brazilian Portuguese language and to investigate the test-retest reliability of this version. Method The translation and cross-cultural adaptation was performed using the methodology of translation and backtranslation. Initially, translations were done by three independent translators. Their synthesis was then submitted to an expert committee for analysis (SCI health professionals); then, the backtranslation to the original language was sent to the original author and, after all the adjustments, the final version was completed. For test-retest reliability, 24 individuals with chronic SCI were recruited (2 evaluations with an interval of 7 to 14 days between them). Statistical analysis was performed using IBM-SPSS (Version 20, SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) with data pretabulated in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA). Reliability was tested with Cohen Kappa, and internal consistency with Cronbach α, both adopting p < 0.05 as significant. Results In the reliability analysis, the results of all questions showed almost perfect agreement (Kappa > 0.81) and good internal consistency (Cronbach α: 0.65–0.77) between the questions and final classification. Conclusion The cross-culturally adapted S4-5Q is reliable to be applied to the Brazilian population with chronic SCI to determine their S4-5 sensory and motor function.