Objective

Translation and cultural adaptation of the ASES (arthritis self-efficacy scale) in French, which is a self-assessment questionnaire, composed of 20 questions divided in 3 domains: pain control, function and other symptoms and assessing the self-efficacy in osteoarthritis from 0 to 10.

Material/patients and methods

Translation and cultural adaptation in French were performed as recommended in the literature. A prospective validation with patients with osteoarthritis was done using the following questionnaires completed by patients: IPAQ (physical activity), WOMAC (functional disability), KOFBeQ (beliefs), HAD (anxiety/depression) and EVA (pain). The retest was performed 15 days later.

Results

A culturally adapted version in French was obtained and was used for the validation study. Fifty-three patients completed the questionnaires. Regarding internal consistency, the Cronbach coefficient was 0.97. For the test-retest reproductibility, Lin’s concordance coefficient was 0.74. The internal and external validity was also explored with correlations found at −0.6304 between ASES and KOFBeQ and at −0.6410 between ASES and WOMAC with a stronger correlation for the function dimension for the last one. Sensitivity to change was also evaluated.

Discussion – conclusion

The French version of the arthritis self-efficacy scale is culturally acceptable and valid. It may be used in routine clinical practice, for example in therapeutic education, as well as in clinical research.