Life balance of European people with MS: RIMS multicenter psychometric study

Introduction: A balanced person is able to spread time (and energy) optimally across the different life domains. Especially in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) the ability to self-steer an optimal balance in daily activity may be compromised. Objective: To evaluate cross-cultural, construct validity and test-retest reliability, of the translated versions of the Life Balance Inventory (LBI) in people with MS within different European cultures (Danish, French, Spanish, Slovenian, Dutch and Flemish). Method: The LBI was translated according to the principles of translation and cultural adaption process of patient-reported outcomes and evaluated in people with MS in each country/language area. To evaluate construct validity, correlations of the LBI with quality of life, fatigue, depression and self-efficacy are explored. LBI (score range 1-3; higher scores refer to better balance) is registered twice to evaluate test-retest reliability. Results: Complete data collection will be finalized in April 2018. Preliminary results are available of the Dutch (n=81, 74% women, 55±9.6 years), Flemish (n=155, 60% women, 50±11.3 years) and Slovenian (n=48, 78% women, 44±11.2 years) samples. Total LBI scores of Flemish version (2.31 ± 0.4) differed significantly from Dutch version (2.47 ± 0.3) (p=0.02) and Slovenian version (2.47 ± 0.3) (p=0.001). ICC [95% CI] of total LBI was 0.90 [0.86 – 0.93] (Flemish), 0.71 [0.54-0.82] (Dutch) and 0.50 [0.08-0.73] (Slovenian). Correlations ranged from 0.178 to 0.487 in the total sample, not fully confirming a priori hypotheses. Conclusion: The Dutch, Slovenian and Flemish LBI show interesting results which will be further explored in the other languages to make conclusions about the usefulness of the LBI for clinical practice and international research.status: publishe