Objective: Arabic is ranked fourth in the most spoken languages after Chinese, English, and Spanish. Our goal was to assess the validity of Arabic version of the Rhinosinusitis Disability index (ar-RSDI) which is rhinosinusitis-specific instrument to assess quality of life (QoL) of affected patients.
Patients and Methods: Our study included 302 chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients and 150 healthy controls. The RSDI English version was translated to Arabic and pretest trial was performed. We assessed the internal consistency using Cronbach´s alpha test. Correlation between item scores and total score of the ar-RSDI, and test-retest validity were evaluated using Spearman's ranks correlation coefficient. The ar-RSDI ability to discriminate between patients and controls, and sensitivity to changes after management of CRS were assessed by Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests, respectively.
Results: The ar-RDSI showed high internal consistency. Strong correlation between each item and subscale scores with the total ar-RDSI scores was detected. The test-retest validity of the ar-RSDI revealed a significant association between the total ar-RSDI and its subscale scores on the first and second readings. The ar-RSDI was able to distinguish between patients and controls where the differences between their mean values were all significant. There were significant differences in the ar-RSDI total and subscale scores for the patients' group before and after the intervention, which reflect the ar-RSDI ability to detect the sensitivity to changes.
Conclusion: The ar-RSDI is a simple and reliable tool with good internal consistency, reproducibility, and validity for the QoL assessment in Arabic-speaking CRS patients in clinical practice.