Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to provide the Turkish adaptation of the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and to investigate its psychometric properties (reliability and validity). Methods: The questionnaire was tested in 101 patients with chronic low back pain. FABQ was translated using of the forward and backward translation procedure and cross cultural adaptation was performed. Internal consistency for FABQ was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Test-retest reliability was assessed in 30 patients with chronic low back pain. Construct validity was assessed using factor analysis. To determine divergent validity, the relationship between the FABQ and the Nottingham Health Profile, Oswestry Disability Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire, Visual Analog Scale and work loss were examined using Spearman rank coefficient analysis. Results: Factor analysis extracted two factors (Work and Physical activity) which accounted for 61.98% of the total variance of the questionnaire. For FABQ-Work and FABQ-Physical Activity internal consistency were 0.88 and 0.82, respectively. The ICC values of test-retest were moderate for Physical Activity and high for Work subscale. The FABQ-Physical Activity correlated with disability and health profile (p<0.05). On the other hand, a significant correlation between the FABQ-Work and health profile and work loss was found (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results indicated that the Turkish FABQ version had acceptable factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity in patients with chronic low back pain.