Translation, Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Persian (Farsi) Version of the Low Anterior Resection Syndrome Score (Lars-P) Publisher Pubmed



Keramati MR^{1, 2} ; Abbaszadehkasbi A^{1, 2} ; Keshvari A^{1, 2} ; Ahmaditafti SM^{1, 2} ; Behboudi B^{1, 2} ; Kazemeini A^{1, 2} ; Fazeli MS^{1, 2} Show Affiliations
Source: PLoS ONE Published:2021

Abstract

Introduction Low anterior resection (LAR) for rectal cancer affects bowel function after the operation, causing a group of symptoms known as LAR Syndrome (LARS). LARS score is a patient-reported questionnaire to assess bowel dysfunction after the LAR operation. This study performed to validate the Persian (Farsi) translation of the LARS score and to investigate the psychometric properties of the score. The impact of LARS on the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients was also assessed. Materials and methods The LARS score was translated into Persian. Participants with a history of rectal cancer and low anterior resection were asked to complete the LARS score questionnaire. They were also asked a single question evaluating the impact of bowel function on QoL. Discriminative validity, convergent validity, sensitivity, and specificity of the questionnaire were calculated. A group of patients completed the score twice to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. Results From 358 patients with rectal cancer, 101 participants completed the Persian questionnaire. Answers of a high fraction of participants showed a moderate/perfect fit between their LARS score and their QoL. The Persian score demonstrated good convergent validity. It was able to differentiate between participants in terms of gender and T staging of the primary tumor. The score had high reliability. Conclusion The Persian translation of the LARS score has excellent psychometric properties compared to previous translations in other languages. Therefore, it is a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess LARS. © 2021 Keramati et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.