Validity and Reliability of Arabic Version of the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale with Burned Patients

Abstract
Background: Post Burn Scar (PBS) are probably the scars with the highest impact on the quality of life both physical and psychological effects related to excessive scarring may hamper the quality of life. Therefore, there is a need for a simple, reliable and a valid assessment scale to use.
Aim of study: Validity of Arabic language version of patient and observer scar assessment to assess quality of recoveryafter burn injury. Reliability of Arabic language version of patent and observer scare assessment to assess quality of recovery and rate of improvement of scare formation after burn injury.
Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted in three steps, as follows: Step 1: POSAS was translated from English to Arabic (examining both forward and backward translations); Step 2: The test-retest reliability of the scale was investigated; and Step 3: The scale was validated against VSS prospectively on 60 patients who attending outpatient clinic and had their scar assessment by Arabic version of POSAS.
Results: The study group had a mean age of (36.45±4.264) years ranged from 30 to 45 years, the Arabic version of (POSAS) demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency and stability over time, the cronbach's alpha for observer scale of (POSAS)=0.894 and for patient scale of (POSAS)=0.9044, validation of the POSAS (observer scale) against the VSS was strong (with r-value=0.892 and p-value=0.0001).
Conclusion: The Arabic version of the (POSAS) is an easy-to-administer, simple, reliable and valid tool for assess-ment of burn scar and for use on Egyptian population. It is advised to be used in clinical practice as well as scientific researches.