Evaluation of an Urdu version of the Impact of Event Scale - Revised

In the aftermath of the major earthquake that hit Pakistan in 2005, there appeared to be a paucity of psychometric tools validated in Urdu. It was decided to translate the Impact of Event Scale - Revised (IES-R) so as to obtain an internationally validated and recognised psychometric tool for use in research into post-traumatic stress disorder. The resulting Urdu and English versions of the IES-R were compared for linguistic, conceptual and scale equivalence. The Urdu version of the IES-R (UIES-R) can be used for clinical, psychological trauma populations in Pakistan with evidence of good reliability and satisfactory validity. In trauma research in Pakistan the UIES-R will be an extremely useful psychometric tool.