The Albanian version of the Oswestry Disability Index: translation, cross-cultural adaptation, validity, and reliability

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the translation, validation, and reliability of the Albanian ODI (ODI-A) version 2.1b. Methods: Standardized guidelines for evaluation of psychometric properties were followed. Participants were recruited from a national center with orthopedic-traumatological specialty of an Albanian region. The construct validity, internal consistency, and the reliability of ODI-A measured by seven days test– retest method across two repeated measures were considered. Results: In total, 200 patients completed the ODI-A 2.1b version: 43% had low back pain, 36% had rheumatoid arthritis as principal diagnosis and the other participants had trauma, luxation, discal hernia, and fractures as diagnosis accompanied by back pain. There were no missing items. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin was 0.613 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was found to be significant (p < 0.001). ODI-A showed excellent test–retest reliability of each item (ICC = 0.707–0.959). Cronbach’s α for the first completion was 0.684, ICC for ODI-A was 0.629, the SEM was 1.701, and MDC95% was 4.71. Conclusions: ODI-A, adapted from a linguistic and cultural perspective, meets validity and reliability requirements necessary for its use in the Albanian population with back pain.