Translation and validation of a caregiver burden scale (CBS) among caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury

Background and Aim: Today, investigation of the health related to the quality of life of caregivers of the patients with chronic disease is among the mail objectives of trereatment teams, due to the key role they play in maintaining patients in the community. Given the wide range of spinal cord injury patients in need of assistance, usually by their relative or caregivers, to perform their daily and professional activities, the huge physical, psychological, emotional and economic burden may be reflected on the quality of life of their caregivers. The aim of the present study was to translate Caregiver Burden Scale into Persian and to study its content and face validity with the goal of creating a useful tool for evaluating and providing effective treatment strategies to reduce the burden of care and improvement of quality of life of caregivers and care recipients. Materials and Methods: In order to be able to use the caregiver burden scale among Iranian caregivers, forward-backward translation procedure was followed to develop the Persian version of the scale. Face validity was evaluated by 14 caregivers and content validity by 14 specialists in rehabilitation. Results: Generally, the items were viewed to be acceptable from the viewpoint of caregivers and some items were suggested by the caregivers to undergo revisions. These items were discussed and revised in an expert panel. The results of the face validity in the view of caregivers indicate that the scale enjoys good validity in terms of relevance, clarity, and simplicity for all the items on a 4-point diagram. The results related to the necessity of CBS items in a three-point scale based on the opinions of 14 specialists in rehabilitation indicate a high content validity. Conclusion: The results show that the Persian translation of "caregiver burden scale" is acceptable and it has acceptable content and face validity.