• Raga A Elzahaf, Osama A Tashani, Biddy A Unsworth, and Mark I Johnson.
• Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. r.elzahaf@leedsmet.ac.uk
• Pain Pract. 2013 Mar 1; 13 (3): 198-205.

BackgroundThe Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) pain scale is used to identify pain of neuropathic origin and has been validated as a self-completed tool (S-LANSS). We translated the S-LANSS into Arabic and evaluated its reliability and linguistic validity for use by Libyan people.MethodsThirteen of 45 Libyan nationals living in the UK were identified as having chronic pain and completed an English and Arabic S-LANSS 1 week apart. In addition, 23 of 104 respondents to a telephone interview in Derna City, Libya, were identified as having chronic pain and completed the Arabic S-LANSS. Seven of these 23 completed the S-LANSS again 1 week later.ResultsCronbach's alpha was 0.72 (P < 0.001) for the Arabic S-LANSS and 0.71 (P < 0.001) for the English S-LANSS. There was good measurement of agreement of individual items in Arabic and English S-LANSS tools with kappa coefficients ranging from 0.69 to 1.00. Twelve of the 23 (52.2%) individuals with chronic pain scored 12 or more on the Arabic S-LANSS and were classified as possibly having neuropathic pain. There was good measurement of agreement of individual items in Arabic S-LANSS tools with kappa coefficients ranging from 0.462 to 1.00. There were strong intraclass correlations in both versions for test-retest reliability of total score.ConclusionThe Arabic S-LANSS is reliable and linguistically valid to use in Libya.PerspectiveOur translation of the S-LANSS into Arabic was shown to be linguistically valid and reliable for use in a Libyan population.© 2012 The Authors. Pain Practice © 2012 World Institute of Pain.

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