Validation of Arabic version of 4-DSQ for screening of Depression, Anxiety, Somatization and Distress in a sample of Primary Health Care attendees in Egypt

Abstract

he four-dimensional symptom questionnaire (4DSQ) is a Dutch self-administered screening tool that has been developed in primary care to differentiate non pathologic general distress from depression, anxiety and somatization. It has been validated in the English language as well as other languages yet it has not been validated in Arabic. For the sake of developing the appropriate Arabic version, linguistic validation has been sought with the guidance of cross-cultural adaptation guidelines. The objective of this study was to design the appropriate Arabic version of the 4DSQ that has linguistic and conceptual equivalence to its validated English version and that is appropriate for administration to Egyptian primary care attendees. The validated English version of the 4DSQ was translated by 5 translators (including specialist psychiatrist, internists and English language specialist) into Arabic (Egyptian spoken dialect) without mutual consultation. An expert committee that consisted of 2 professors of public health and family medicine and an associate professor of neuropsychiatry was formed. The consensus version was created after expert committee modification and approval of each questionnaire item using DELPHI method. After that the back translation to English was carried out by two independent