Introduction: Patients suffering from erectile dysfunction (ED) feel shy to discuss this issue with their physician. Self-report questionnaires are a key instrument to break this barrier. Most of these questionnaires are in English, and their validated translations in Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, are not available.
Aim: The aim of our study is to translate, cross-culturally adapt, and perform psychometric validation of an Urdu translation of the 5-item international index of erectile function (IIEF-5).
Methods: The translation of IIEF-5 was done in Urdu and was refined through reverse translation and expert committee reviews. It was then pretested on 20 bilingual men and reviewed again to develop a final Urdu version of the questionnaire. We selected 47 patients who had been in a stable sexual relationship over the past 6 months and asked them to fill out the IIEF-5 questionnaire in both languages (Urdu and English), followed by evaluation of ED by a clinician, who was blinded to the responses of the patient to the questionnaire.
Main outcome measures: The self-report to questionnaire and independent clinical assessment were compared. Patients refilled out the questionnaire again at the end of the interview to assess test-retest consistency. These data were now analyzed statistically using descriptive statistics, Cohen's kappa, and Cronbach's alpha analysis.
Results: The Cohen's kappa showed a very high degree of agreement between the two versions (P < 0.0001), and a high degree of internal consistency was demonstrated on Cronbach's alpha analysis ([0.882] with 95% confidence interval [0.839-0.916]). The clinical assessment of the presence and severity of ED also matched with the self-report questionnaire.
Conclusion: We can safely conclude that this Urdu version of IIEF-5 is a valid instrument for use in the literate population of Pakistan.
© 2012 International Society for Sexual Medicine.