Psychometric evaluation of Persian version of Seizure Severity Questionnaire

Abstract

Background and purposeSeizure severity has been increasingly gaining attention as a complementary assessment to seizure frequency for the measurement of treatment responses. This study aimed to assess the reliability and external validity and of the Persian version of the Seizure Severity Questionnaire (SSQ). MethodsThe study sample was recruited from 126 patients with epilepsy who attended the neurology outpatient clinic at Imam Khomeini and Roozbeh hospitals, Tehran, Iran. The Forward-Backward technique was applied to translate the questionnaire. The reliability of SSQ was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The external validity of SSQ was assessed by correlating SSQ scores with Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-31 (QOLIE-31) subscales. ResultsThe sample comprised 63 women (50%) and 63 men (50%) aged 13–76 years. The mean scores of SSQ items ranged from 3.46 to 5.48. Distribution was skewed for all component scores, with a tendency for the item scores to concentrate toward the highest scores. Reliability for almost all domains were moderate to good, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.615 to 0.770. Component B to D and total score of SSQ had weak-to-moderate inverse correlation with QOLIE-31 subscale scores. However, the result showed no significant correlation with age, sex, or education. ConclusionWith some limitations, the Persian version of the SSQ shows relatively good reliability and content validity, supporting its use as a specific measure of seizure severity in epilepsy in Iran.