Validity and Reliability of the Persian Boston Questionnaire in Diabetic Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Introduction and Aims
Carpal tunnel syndrome is known as strangulation of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. There are different methods for
diagnosis of this syndrome. The Boston Questionnaire is a method for determining the intensity and quality of the disorder.
The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Persian Boston Questionnaire in order to
evaluate the severity and functional ability of carpal tunnel patients in Iranian diabetics.
Materials and Methods
The study was done on 105 diabetic patients. The Persian Boston Questionnaire and its English retranslation were provided
by Backward-Forward method. Its content and construct validity were evaluated and in order to determine the reliability of
the Questionnaire Cronbach’s alpha was calculated. Data was analyzed by SPSS v.20.
Results
In this study content and construct validities of the Questionnaire were 92.75% and 77.7% respectively. The results of
Spearman correlation in construct validity assay between the electro diagnosis test and two parameters: symptoms intensity
and functional status were 0.33 and 0.34, respectively. Cronbach’s alpha of the questionnaire was 0.86.
Conclusion
The Boston Questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool in evaluation of intensity of symptoms and functional status in Iranian
diabetics with carpal tunnel syndrome, but it has low validity in evaluating the physiological intensity of illness.

* Corresponding Author: Kerman University of Medial Science, Neurology Research Center.
Email: N_Khanjani@kmu.ac.ir