• Marit Hjellestad, Liv Inger Strand, Geir Egil Eide, Ragnvald Brekke, Anne Nesheim, and Bente Elisabeth Bassøe Gjelsvik.
• Department of Physiotherapy, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
• Burns. 2021 Jun 1; 47 (4): 953-960.

PurposeTo translate and culturally adapt the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale, POSAS, to Norwegian and explore its test-retest, intra- and inter-tester reliability.MethodsPOSAS was translated into Norwegian following international guidelines in collaboration with an international translation bureau. Twenty-six adults and 24 children were recruited from a burns outpatient clinic. Three observer-categories: doctor, nurse and physiotherapist, assessed the patients' scars and scored the Observer scale for estimating inter-tester reliability. Photos of the scars were taken and used to score the Observer scale a second time for examining intra-tester reliability. The patients or parents/next of kin rated their scar on the Patient scale at the clinic and after two days at home for examining test-retest reliability. Intraclass correlation (ICC) and Kappa were used for statistical analysis.ResultsA Norwegian version of POSAS (POSAS-NV) was developed. Inter-tester ICC of the Observer parameters varied between 0.203 and 0.728, and for the total sum score, ICC=0.528 (0.280-0.708). Intra-tester ICC of the Observer scale ranged between 0.575 and 0.858. The Patient scale demonstrated high test-retest reliability.ConclusionsIntra-tester reliability of the Observer scale and test-retest reliability of the Patient scale of POSAS-NV were found satisfactory, but not inter-tester reliability of the Observer scale.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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