Translation and validation of the Persian version of the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2-Short Form (AIMS2-SF) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Cultural adaptation and validation of the Persian version of the Arthritis Measurement Scales 2-Short Form (AIMS2-SF). The translation and cultural adaptation of the original questionnaire was carried out in accordance with published guidelines. Three hundred and fifty consecutive Persian-speaking patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were asked to complete the AIMS2-SF, the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and four visual analog scales (VAS) for pain, joint stiffness, and patient's and physician's global assessment to test convergent validity. In addition, 90 randomly selected patients were asked to complete the questionnaire 48 h later for the second time. Moderate to high correlation were found between the AIMS2-SF and subscales of the SF-36 and VAS for pain, morning stiffness, and patient's and physician's global assessment. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the Persian AIMS2-SF scales ranged from 0.74 to 0.89. The Persian AIMS2-SF scales showed excellent test-retest reliability with Intraclass Correlation Coefficient ranging from 0.83-0.93 (p < 0.01). The results of the present study showed that the Persian AIMS2-SF has reasonably good convergent validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability in patients with RA. It can now be applied in clinical settings and future outcome studies in Iran.This research has been supported by Zahedan University of Medical Sciences and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. We would like to thank the following rheumatologists for enrolling patients into the study: H. Akbari, N. Hosseini, Z. Fatemi, S. Khani, M. Abdekhoda, F. Jafari, H. Mohamadi, and S. Mousavi. We also thank the patients who gave up their time to complete the questionnaires