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Abstract

The Rehabilitation Network of Ottawa-Carleton (RENOC) recommends that its institutions use the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS). Since RENOC serves both Francophone and Anglophone clients, the LEFS needed to be translated to assess the Francophone clientele. To create a French-Canadian version of the LEFS, with the proposed title "Échelle fonctionnelle des membres inférieurs" (ÉFMI), and to examine its content validity. A modified version of Vallerand's (1989) cross-validation technique for questionnaires was used to validate the equivalence of the French version of the LEFS. First, a parallel reverse translation of the LEFS was completed. Second, a committee of experts examined the two drafts and created a first experimental version of the ÉFMI. Third, this version was evaluated by a second committee of experts. Following the comments received, a second experimental version was created. Fourth, 35 rehabilitation professionals evaluated the second experimental version of the ÉFMI on a scale of ambiguity and proposed final changes. On the final version of the ÉFMI, the statements demonstrated a relatively low average level of ambiguity, ranging between 1 and 2.54. The rigorous four-step process followed in this study produced a French-Canadian version of the LEFS with demonstrated content validity.