Thai Language Research Articles

Perceived Stress and Associated Factors Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care in Urban Thailand.

BackgroundPerceived stress during pregnancy is associated with adverse obstetric outcomes. Antenatal perceived stress is still unaware and under-diagnosed during routine antenatal care. There has not yet been a study of prevalence and associated factors among pregnant women living in urban areas in Thailand. Understanding antenatal perceived stress is important to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes.ObjectiveTo identify the prevalence, associated factors, and predictive factors of perceived stress in pregnant women living in an urban area.Materials and MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted from December 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020 among pregnant women attending antenatal care at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine Vajira Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. The participants were interviewed using a structured questionnaire which included demographic data, obstetric data, serious life event data, and a Thai language version of the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (T-PSS-10) to assess perceived stress symptoms.ResultsOf a total 403 pregnant women, the prevalence of perceived stress symptoms in antenatal pregnant women was 23.6%. Perceived stress symptoms were significantly associated with divorce (p=0.001), separation from spouse (p=0.005), physical or psychological trauma from family (p=0.005), marital conflict (p<0.001), and family conflict (p<0.001). Results from multiple logistic regression found that significant predictive factors for perceived stress symptoms in pregnant women were marital conflict (AOR 3.10, 95% CI 1.74–5.52, p<0.001) and family conflict (AOR 3.24, 95% CI 1.59–6.60, p=0.001).ConclusionThis study demonstrated that the prevalence of perceived stress symptoms in pregnant women living in an urban area in Thailand was 23.6%. Perceived stress symptoms were significantly associated with divorce, separation from spouse, physical or psychological trauma from family, marital conflict, and family conflict. Predictive factors for perceived stress symptoms were marital conflict and family conflict.

WabiQA: A Wikipedia-Based Thai Question-Answering System

With vast information that has been digitized and made available online, manually finding the answer to a question can be tedious. While search engines have emerged to facilitate information needs, users would have to manually read through the retrieved articles to locate the answer to a specific question. Therefore, the ability to automatically understand users’ natural language questions and find the correct answers could prove crucial in information retrieval. Indeed, such automatic question-answering solutions have been extensively studied by the natural language processing (NLP) research communities. However, most of the development targets questions and information sources composed in high-resource languages such as English and Chinese. In this paper, we propose WabiQA, a novel system for automatically answering questions in the Thai language using the Thai Wikipedia articles as the knowledge source. Specifically, the proposed method first retrieves the Wikipedia article that is most likely to contain the answer. Then, a bi-directional LSTM model is used to read the article and locate candidate answers, which are ranked by confidence levels and returned to the user. WabiQA won the first prize award from Thailand’s National Software Contest 2019 under category “Question-Answering Program from Thai Wikipedia,” with 83.5%, 34.80%, and 45.96%, and outperforming the next best competitors’ systems by 19.99, 24.26, and 33.10 percentage points in terms of Accuracy@1, EM, and F1 respectively. Furthermore, we also develop a prototype mobile application that aims to facilitate Thai users with visual impairment using voice-to-speech technology and an intelligent question-answer categorization. The findings of this research not only expand the horizon of the possibility to develop intelligent NLP applications for the Thai language using only available existing Thai NLP tools, resources, and deep learning technologies, but also shed light on the possibility to apply such techniques to develop many intelligent NLP tasks for the Thai and other low-resource languages such as reading assessment, writing assistance, and entity linking.

Cross‐cultural adaptation of the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool – Youth Thai version

This study aimed to translate the original version of the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAITY) into a Thai version by using cross-cultural adaptation, and to examine the psychometric properties and cut-off score of the CAITY - Thai version (CAITY-T). Six cross-cultural adaptation steps were used to translate and validate the psychometric properties with 267 participants, 140 with chronic ankle instability (CAI) and 127 without CAI. Their mean age was 12.3 ± 2.42years. Validation was carried out for internal consistency and concurrent validity against a visual analog scale for global perceived ankle instability, and for discriminant validity (receiver operating characteristic curve). The CAITY-T was completed twice by 133 volunteer children (49.62%) for test-retest reliability. The cut-off score was determined using Youden's index. The CAITY was successfully adapted for the Thai language. Validation showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.767) and concurrent validity (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.8 right ankle and 0.784 left ankle). The test-retest reliability was substantial with an intraclass correlation coefficient (2,1) of 0.865 (95% Confidence Interval = 0.809-0.904). The receiver operating characteristic curve and Youden's index showed the cut-off score that discriminated between children with and without CAI on the CAITY-T at ≤25. The CAITY-T obtained 95.2% sensitivity, 97% specificity, 0.05 negative, and 32 positive likelihood ratios. The CAITY-T was valid and available for Thai children aged 8-16years. It displayed positive reliability, good validity, and an acceptable cut-off score. The cut-off score for children had high sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios.

The development of Thai monosyllabic word and picture lists applicable to interactive speech audiometry in preschoolers

ABSTRACT Interactive speech audiometry is the assessment of speech comprehension and phonological discrimination through automated means. In order for the performance of such assessments in preschoolers to be successful, the employed list of words and pictures must be easily recognized both linguistically and visually. That is, the children must be able to easily associate the sound they hear with the picture they see with a high degree of certainty. To this end, a Thai monosyllabic word and picture list called NCU-20 (NECTEC-CU-20) is proposed. The word lists for Thai vowel and consonant hearing tests are designed with an awareness of phonetic environments. Regarding Thai vowels, both monophthongs and diphthongs, with all qualities and quantities, are examined. Initial consonants are categorized based on places and manners of articulation. The effectiveness of the list is objectively and subjectively verified through Thai Textbook Corpus, Thai National Corpus, Zipf scores, a listening test of preschoolers with normal hearing, and our proposed ranking systems referred to as Tier-1st, Tier-3/3, and Overall Tier. The final suggested word and picture list comprises 45 items (words) covering 35 vowels and consonant groups in the Thai Language.

Reliability and Validity of the Thai Version of the Swiss Spinal Stenosis Questionnaire.

The original Swiss Spinal Stenosis (SSS) questionnaire was translated into the Thai version and culturally adapt for use in Thailand. The Thai version—SSS is valid and reliable to use in both clinical and research to address the functional, symptom severity, and satisfaction in Thai lumbar spinal stenosis patients. Study Design.. Cross-sectional study. Objective.. To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Thai version of the Swiss Spinal Stenosis (SSS) questionnaire. Summary of Background Data.. The SSS questionnaire was developed to assess symptom severity, physical functional status, and patient satisfaction in spinal stenosis patients that was previously reported to have good reliability and validity. There is currently no Thai version of the SSS questionnaire. Methods.. The SSS questionnaire was translated into Thai language to create the Thai version of the Swiss Spinal Stenosis (Thai-SSS) questionnaire. Translation was performed according to international standards using a forward-backward translation protocol. Translation was performed by two expert translators and one physician, and the final version was approved by an expert committee. Thai patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis were enrolled and evaluated using the Thai-SSS questionnaire, the Thai version of the Short Form-36 (SF-36), and a visual analogue scale (VAS) before and after treatment. Reliability and validity of the Thai-SSS were assessed via comparison with the SF-36 and the VAS. Results.. One hundred seven patients were included. Eighty patients underwent decompression and fusion surgery, and the others underwent decompression alone. Cronbach's alpha of all domains of the Thai-SSS showed excellent internal consistency (0.869–0.921). The intraclass correlation coefficient for test–retest reliability was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.65–0.85). Regarding concurrent validity, the physical function scale of the Thai-SSS was strongly correlated with the physical functioning domain of the SF-36 (r = 0.70). The symptom severity domain of the Thai-SSS was strongly correlated with the bodily pain domain of the SF-36 and the VAS (r = 0.76 and 0.78, respectively). Conclusion.. The Thai-SSS was found to be a valid and reliable tool for evaluating symptom severity, physical function, and patient satisfaction after treatment in Thai patients with spinal stenosis. Level of Evidence: 4

Translation Quality Assessment of Online Translation Systems in Translating English to Thai on Phuket Tourism

This research aims to compare four English-to-Thai translator applications on translating the comments posted on social media. Four translator applications include Google Translate, Baidu Translate, Yandex.Translate and Microsoft/Bing Translate. The comments in this study are on three main popular attractions in Phuket, Thailand. The attractions include a temple (Wat Chalong), a viewpoint spot (Promthep Cape) and a beach (Patong beach). Fifty comments on each attraction are collected from GoogleReviews and TripAdvisor. The total of 300 comments are translated by four translators making the final translated comments of 1,200 comments. All translated comments are evaluated by three language experts on three categories including the grammar structure, the vocabulary and idiom and the overall translation. The evaluation results show that Google Translate is found to be the most suitable translator for translating English comments to Thai comments in this study at 89.33%. Google Translate receives the average suitable score of 4.20 out of 5.00. However, Google Translate is weak at word choices to generate a beautiful sentence. Baidu Translate is very superb at generating a beautiful sentence similar to human languages. However, Baidu Translate only gets a good result on a specific domain or situation. As a result, Baidu Translate is lost to Google Translate in most cases. Even though this research presents the results on Thai language and specific domains, the techniques used in this study can be applied to any language on any domain.

Validity and Reliability of a Thai Version of Family Satisfaction with Care in the Intensive Care Unit Survey.

PurposeTo examine reliability and validity of a Thai version of the Family Satisfaction with Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU 24) questionnaire and use this survey in intensive care units (ICUs) in Thailand.Materials and methodsThe standard English FS-ICU questionnaire was translated into the Thai language using translation and culture adaptation guidelines. After reliability and validity testing, we consecutively surveyed the satisfaction of family members of ICU patients over 1 year. Adult family members of patients admitted to medical or surgical ICUs for 48 hours or more who had visited the patients at least once during the ICU stay were included.ResultsIn all, 315 (95%) of 332 surveys were returned from family members. Cronbach's α of the Thai FS-ICU 24 questionnaire was 0.95. Factor analysis demonstrated good construct validity. The mean (±SD) of total satisfaction score, overall ICU care subscale, and decision-making subscale were 81.5 ± 14.3, 81.0 ± 15.6, and 82.0 ± 14.0. Items with the lowest scores were the waiting room atmosphere and the frequency of doctors communicating with family members about the patient's condition. The mean total satisfaction score tended to be higher in family members of survivors than in family members of nonsurvivors (81.9 ± 13.8 vs 77.7 ± 16.2, p value = 0.059). The overall satisfaction scores between medial ICU and surgical ICU were not significantly different.ConclusionThe Thai version of FS-ICU questionnaire was found to have acceptable reliability and validity in a Thai population and can be used to drive improvements in ICU care.Trial registrationwww.clinicaltrials.in.th, TCR20160603002How to cite this articleTajarernmuang P, Chittawatanarat K, Dodek P, Heyland DK, Chanayat P, Inchai J, et al. Validity and Reliability of a Thai Version of Family Satisfaction with Care in the Intensive Care Unit Survey. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(10):946–954.

The Hmong and the Communist Party of Thailand: A Transnational, Transcultural and Gender-Relations-Transforming Experience

AbstractBeginning in the early 1960s—and especially by the end of the decade—a large number of the ethnic Hmong people in Thailand aligned themselves with the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT). By the 1970s, most of the CPT's “liberated areas” were located in remote, mountainous areas populated by Hmong people. In this paper, I situate Hmong involvement in CPT through the literature related to the multi-ethnic connections being made through the organisation of armed groups and argue that Hmong involvement with the CPT was transnational, transcultural and gender-relations-transforming. The first Hmong Thai to join the CPT was recruited in neighbouring Laos. Other Hmong in Thailand heard about the CPT through radio broadcasts from Laos in Hmong language. Furthermore, many of the early CPT recruits travelled from their homes in Thailand for political and military instruction at a basic training centre called A-30, which was located somewhere in northern Laos near the border with China. There, most Hmong CPT recruits learned to speak, read and write central Thai language. Hmong CPT also started to meaningfully interact with other Thais, including those from northeastern and southern Thailand and Chinese Thais from Bangkok. Later, those deemed to have particular potential were sent to study in China or in Vietnam for specific military training. Some Hmong sent their children to study with the CPT; others went on their own. The Hmong also interacted with people from other communist movements in Southeast Asia.

466 - Reliability“and Validity Study of the Thai version of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia”(PAINAD-Th)

Background: Dementia is a syndrome that affects multiple cognitive domains and causes functional decline. People with dementia (PwD) often experience pain, still could not report the symptom due to the decline in cognition that leads to communication problems. Therefore, pain in PwD is often underrecognized and undertreated. Many behavioral observation tools have been developed to help identify pain in PwD; the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale is one of the recommended tools to evaluate pain in PwD. The PAINAD has been translated into many languages, yet not translated into Thai language. Since there is no pain assessment tool for PwD in Thailand.Objective: This study aimed to assess the reliability"and validity of the PAINAD in Thai version (PAINAD-Th) for measuring pain in people with"PwDMaterials and Methods: The cross-cultural translation including forward translation and back-translation of PAINAD-Th were performed, then the content validity was assessed by the expert committee. Enrolled participants were inpatients aged 60 years or over, and had dementia with Functional Assessment Staging Test (FAST) of at least 6 which represented moderately severe stage. A research assistant recorded 5-minute videos of the participants, the first video was during the activity that could provoke the pain and the second video was at rest. Two trained nurses independently rated the pain of the participants by observing the videos using the PAINAD-Th to examine the inter-rater reliability and the concurrent validity of the test against the reference standard which was the numeric rating scale (NRS) rated by the expert committee. The same rating process was reproduced one week apart to explore the test-retest reliability.Results: The content validity index of the PAINAD-Th was 1.00 and 0.93 (forward and back-translation, respectively)."The inter -rater and test-retest reliability showed an excellent intra-class correlation coefficient of"0.92 and 0.96, respectively. The concurrent validity was significantly correlated with the reference standard with an excellent intra-class correlation coefficient of"0.95.Conclusions: The PAINAD-Th is a promising tool for pain evaluation in PwD as it provides an excellent concurrent validity against the reference standard. Also, it has excellent content validity, inter-rater, and test-retest reliability.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Antenatal Depressive Symptoms in Pregnant Women Living in an Urban Area of Thailand.

BackgroundDepression is a major public health problem in middle- and low-income countries. Depression in pregnancy has adverse effects on obstetric outcomes. Maternal depression remains under-recognized, under-diagnosed and undertreated in Thailand. Antenatal screening of depression is an important strategy to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. This problem has rarely been investigated in Thailand, especially in urban areas.ObjectiveTo discover the prevalence, associated factors, and predictive factors of depression in pregnant women living in an urban area.Materials and MethodsThis cross-sectional study of 402 pregnant women was conducted during antenatal care at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine Vajira Hospital, Navamindradhiraj University, Bangkok, Thailand, from 10 September to 31 November 2019. The participants were interviewed using a structured questionnaire that included a demographic profile, obstetric conditions, socio-cultural characteristics, and a Thai language version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale to assess depressive symptoms.ResultsAmong a total 402 pregnant women, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in pregnant women in an urban area was 18.9%. Depressive symptoms in pregnant women were significantly associated with divorce (p < 0.001), low family income (p < 0.03), financial insufficiency (p < 0.001), extended family (p < 0.001), history of previous abortion (p = 0.033), history of previous pregnancy complications (p = 0.044), current alcohol use (p = 0.03), current tobacco use (p = 0.009), current substance abuse (p = 0.002), marital conflict (p < 0.001), and family conflict (p < 0.001). The significant factors predicting depression in pregnant women were extended family (AOR 3.0, 95% CI 1.59–5.51, p=0.001) and marital conflict (AOR 4.7, 95% CI 2.37–9.11, p<0.001).ConclusionThis study revealed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms in pregnant women living in an urban area in Thailand was 18.9%. The significant associated factors of depressive symptoms were divorce, low family income, financial insufficiency, extended family, previous abortion, previous pregnancy complications, current alcohol use, current tobacco use, current substance abuse, marital conflict, and family conflict. Extended family and marital conflict were significant predictive factors for antenatal depressive symptoms.

Working Style Assessment (WSA): Instrument Adjustment for the Thai Context

This research aimed at assessing the cross-cultural reliability and validation of the Thai version of the Working Style Assessment (WSA). The original scales were translated into the Thai language and back translated and approved by PAR (Psychological Assessment Resources), Inc. Questionnaires were collected from 896 Thai participants (388 males and 508 females) who were employed in the workforce aged between 18 and 60 years. The Thai version has acceptable reliability and validity. Analysis of invariances and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the US original and the Thai WSA model forms were “partially invariant”. To broaden the knowledge, the approach used in this study could be adopted as guidelines for developing a WSA in countries where localized versions are unavailable.

Speech therapy model for patients with cleft palate in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Lack of speech services

BackgroundA majority of children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) have persistent speech and language problems after repair. Speech services are critically needed for these children in some developing countries where there is a lack of or no speech services. This includes the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) where accessibility to speech therapy is not an attainable medical specialty. ObjectiveTo establish and determine the effectiveness of speech therapy model in reduction of the number of articulation errors for children with CLP in LPDR where these services are lacking. MethodsSpeech therapy for children with CLP in LPDR by using the adapted Khon Kaen University Speech Therapy Model based on combining the principles of Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR), Primary Health Care (PHC) and institutional medical approaches was provided for children with CLP in Bokeo, LPDR. Twelve children with CLP (3.6–16 years) were recruited for this study. Demonstration and teaching services for both speech assistants (SAs), who were local health care providers, and caregivers were performed in 3-day intensive speech camps. Three 1-day follow-up speech camps and 3 site visits were conducted by Thai speech and language pathologists (TSLPs) and their teams. SAs provided speech correction at local health care units based on TSLPs’ individual monitoring and supervision. Caregivers practiced assigned exercises at home. Speech Therapy Model in LPDR was undertaken for 1 year. ResultsThe Speech Therapy Model in LPDR was one of the effective models and significantly reduced number of articulatory errors (mean difference = 6.42; 95% confidence interval = 3.01, 9.83).

Integrated older people care and advanced practice nursing: an evidence-based review.

To critically appraise and synthesize evidence of integrated care stemming from advanced practice nursing in elderly primary care settings throughout the United States and Thailand. Advanced practice nurses are key to accelerating integrated elderly care in the community. Yet, their scope and capacity vary greatly across countries, making impact measurement highly challenging. A systematic search of PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and ThaiJo databases was performed. Full-text articles in English or Thai language were reviewed using an inductive thematic approach from the integrated people-centred Health Services framework, adopted by the World Health Organization. A total of 42 articles were appraised according to framework strategies: (1) people and community empowerment/engagement; (2) governance and accountability strengthening; (3) model of care reorientation; (4) service coordination; and (5) enabling environment creation. Collaborative roles and empowerment of older people were associated with higher quality of care. Thai nurses empowered individuals through community networks and resources, incorporating care models (strategy 1). In contrast, US nurses adopted a quality improvement and safety approach, incorporating technology into nursing interventions (strategy 5). Advanced practice nurses employ an array of strategies and approaches in caring for older people. Although their role varies from mostly substitute (US) to supplemental (Thailand), nurses in both countries contribute towards integrated person-centred care. Preparing advanced practice nurses to work in the community is a prerequisite for meeting ageing population health needs in a sustainable manner. Education, professional development and leadership training opportunities should focus on capacity building in: a) strengthening mutual accountability, b) reorienting the work environment through innovative care models and c) coordinating services through partnerships to achieve universal health and ensure healthy ageing.

Virtual reality education for dementia care: a scoping review protocol.

This scoping review aims to examine the content and outcome measurements of health care education programs using virtual reality for the care of people with dementia, involving, but not limited to, health science students, health care professionals, family, and unpaid caregivers INTRODUCTION:: Several studies have examined approaches for improving the care of people with dementia by both professional, family and unpaid caregivers using virtual reality. However, the content and outcomes of these interventions are disjointed, and there is currently no unified indicator to evaluate virtual reality educational programs. This review will consider studies that include educational programs using virtual reality for health science students, health care professionals, and family caregivers of people with dementia. All study designs will be considered. The proposed scoping review will be conducted following the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. The databases to be searched include MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane, and JBI Evidence Synthesis; local databases in Japanese, Thai, Taiwanese, and Chinese; and sources of unpublished studies and gray literature. Studies published in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai languages will be included. The data extracted will include specific details about the population, concept, context, study methods, and critical findings relevant to the review objective and be presented in diagrammatic or tabular form in a manner that aligns with the objective of this scoping review.

Reliability and validity of the Thai pediatric quality of life inventory\u2122 3.0 neuromuscular module

BackgroundNeuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are chronic illnesses that adversely impact the lives of patients and their families. The Pediatric Quality of Life™ 3.0 Neuromuscular Module (PedsQL™ 3.0 NMM) was designed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among children with NMDs. The objective of this cross-sectional study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the PedsQL™ 3.0 NMM Thai version.MethodsFormal permission to translate the PedsQL™ 3.0 NMM into Thai language was granted by the inventor, and the translation process followed linguistic translation guidelines. The PedsQL™ 3.0 NMM Thai version was administered to children with NMD and their parents/caregivers at the Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Re-test was performed within 2–4 weeks after the initial test.ResultsOne hundred and three children with NMD and their parents or caregivers were enrolled. Internal reliability as measured by Cronbach’s alpha was > 0.7 (total score: child α = 0.88, parent α = 0.91). Test-retest reliability showed good agreement with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.69 and 0.82 for the total score of the child report and the parent report, respectively. The mean (SD) quality of life total score for the child self-report was 74.9 (13.9) among ambulatory patients, and 60.7 (15.2) among non-ambulatory patients (maximum quality of life score is 100). The mean total quality of life score for the parent proxy-report was 70 (14.5) among ambulatory patients, and 55.2 (18.3) among non-ambulatory patients. The child total score was in good agreement with the parent/caregiver total score.ConclusionsPedsQL™ 3.0 NMM Thai version is a reliable and valid measure of HRQoL in Thai children with NMDs.

Validation of the Thai version of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (ICIQ-FLUTS).

To provide a validated Thai language version of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (ICIQ-FLUTS) following a standardized procedure and to evaluate its psychometric properties. After IRB approval, the English ICIQ-FLUTS was translated into Thai according to the cross-cultural adaptation process for patient-reported outcome measures. The psychometric properties of the final version of the Thai ICIQ-FLUTS were tested for content validity, internal consistency, construct validity, and test-retest reliability. Patients attending an urogynecology clinic and women from two communities were recruited for this study. The final Thai version of the ICIQ-FLUTS was developed and assessed by a panel of clinicians fluent in both languages including the content expert. Women with and without female lower urinary tract symptoms (FLUTS), in whom the translation was pretested, agreed that the final version made sense and was understandable. Among the 288 women who received the questionnaires, 283 (142 attending the clinic and 141 living in the communities) returned the completed questionnaire. The overall internal consistency of the Thai-version questionnaire was high, with a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.849. Symptom scores for filling, voiding, and incontinence in patients attending the clinic were significantly higher than in individuals from the community (p < 0.001). The correlation coefficients between the test and retest among 136 participants for symptoms of filling, voiding, and incontinence were 0.925, 0.769, and 0.921, respectively (p < 0.05). The Thai ICIQ-FLUTS contained satisfactory content and exhibited construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. It is equivalent to the original English version and will be a valuable tool for assessing LUTS in Thai-speaking women.

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF TYPES OF NOUN IN THAI AND ENGLISH

The Thai language is Thailand's national language, written in its own alphabet, which is used to speak as the Thai standard language by Thai people. The Thai language is classified as a member of the Tai language group within the Tai-Kadai language family, which originated in what is now Southern China. The English language is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in Anglo-Saxon England in the early middle Ages. It is now the third most widely used language in the world, behind Mandarin and Spanish. The aim of this article mainly concentrates on a contrastive study of the types of nouns in Thai and English. It has been observed that there are a lot of differences in the syntactic features of these two languages. It is very interesting to note that some similarities among the nouns in these two languages. In Thai language, there are no variants forms of plural forms of noun.

Validation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy with Cervical Cancer Subscale (FACT-CX) for Quality of Life in Thai Patients Prior to Chemoradiotherapy.

Objective:Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in Thailand. For cervical cancer, there is no cancer specific quality of life questionnaire. This study aims to develop and validate Thai FACT-CX. Methods:The cross-sectional study included all women aged ≥18 years with stage IB2-IIIB who planned to undergo chemoradiotherapy. Those who did not understand Thai language, had other cancers (except for skin cancer), were diagnosed with impaired cognition and/or overt psychosis, and major depression were excluded. The FACT-CX comprises 42 items with 5 domains and a score range of 0-168. The WHOQOL-BREF comprises 26 items with 4 domains and a score range of 26-130. The participants were interviewed about demographic and clinical data. Both questionnaires were self-completed. Factor analysis was used to compare our data with the previous structure. The reliability used Cronbach’s alpha. Spearman’s correlation determined relationship between the domains of the modified FACT-CX and WHOQOL-BREF. Both questionnaires were compared with socioeconomic and clinical variables using the Ranksum test and Kruskal-Wallis test. P-value > 0.05 considered significant. Results:The 245 participants included. Expletory factor analysis revealed an accumulative variance of 0.42 with 4 factors. The internal consistency was 0.84, 0.81, 0.78, 0.77 and 0.90 for perception of self, suffering symptoms, family support, life resilience and total questions. There was correlation between the domains of the modified FACT-CX and WHOQOL-BREF. Both the modified FACT-CX and WHOQOL-BREF could identify differences between the groups of patients. Conclusion:Finally, the Thai modified FACT-CX was found to be reliable and valid for measuring quality of life among untreated cervical cancer patients.

Determining and Establishing A General Classification of Prefixes and Prefixoids for Nouns in Multistructural Languages (A Case Study of Russian, German, and Thai Languages)

This article examines the problem of classifying prefixes and prefixoids or half-prefixes for nouns in multistructural languages. The concept of prefixes and prefixoids in multistructural languages is debatable due linguists’ different points of view, therefore, the same word-formation formant (prefix for nouns, in this context) can receive different names, such as prefix, prefixoid, confix, preconfix, initial or the first part of compound words or an element of compound words; in addition, in multistructural languages the same word-formation formant of foreign origin, especially Greek and Latin, may be considered and classified according to many other different criteria, proposed by linguists. The relevance of the study is enhanced by the need to define and classify prefixes and prefixoids for nouns in multistructural languages (namely in Russian, Thai, and German) in a new way. The authors seek to determine and classify prefixes and prefixoids by establishing the most suitable criteria in the languages under analysis after an in-depth review of existing systems proposed by other linguists. As material for selective analysis, they use lexemes recorded in word-formation and explanatory dictionaries as well as data from relevant research by Russian and foreign linguists. Using the comparative approach, they attempt to establish the general criteria that would enable scholars to define and classify noun prefixes and prefixoids in multistructural languages, thus simplifying the existing system of analysis and classification. The results of this study may be used both as a tool for modeling prefixal derivatives of nouns in multistructural languages and as a constructive stepping stone for further similar research in word formation of multistructural languages.

A Screening Tool for Patients With Lumbar Instability: A Content Validity and Rater Reliability of Thai Version

ObjectiveLumbar instability is a condition that has been extensively reported in its prevalence and its effect on patients. To date, however, a clinical screening tool for this condition has not been developed for use in Thailand. The objectives of this study were to translate and test the content validity and rater reliability of a screening tool for evaluating Thai patients with lumbar instability. MethodsThe investigators selected the lumbar instability questionnaire from an original English version. Elements of the tool comprised the dominant subjective findings reported by this clinical population. The screening tool was translated into the Thai language following a process of cross-cultural adaptation. The index of item-objective congruence (IOC) was checked for content validity by 5 independent experts. Seventy-five Thai patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain were asked to report their symptoms. The interview procedure using the tool was conducted by expert and novice physical therapists, which informed the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for inter- and intrarater reliability. ResultsThe IOC was 0.95. The interrater ICC between expert and novice physical therapists was 0.92 (95% CI = 0.88-0.95). The intrarater ICC of novice physical therapist was 0.91 (95% CI = 0.86-0.94). ConclusionThe Thai version of the screening tool for patients with lumbar instability achieved excellent content validity and interrater and intrarater reliability. This screening tool is recommended for use with Thai patients with low back pain to identify the subpopulation with lumbar instability.