Validity & Reliability Assessment of Persian Version of Core Section of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of Persian version of survey instrument for Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFS). Content and Face validity of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFS) questionnaire were examined with Backward-Forward method. This method consisted of four steps: translation، back-translation، expert review and Pilot study. For evaluation of reliability of questionnaire، 194 adults of 18 years or older from Karaj province were interviewed. For the examination of reliability، Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to assess the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The reliability of quantitative variables evaluated with intra class correlation (ICC); ordinal variables with weighted Kappa and nominal variables with Kappa and weighted Kappa were calculated as well. Average age of participants were 38. 8 15. Majority of participants (66. 5%) were in 18-44 years group، 26. 8% in 45-64 years and others 65 years and older. In validity procedure، 26 questions were deleted، 3 questions added and 6 questions were modified. Questions of ‘having situations of HIV morbidity’ and ‘Do you currently use drug abuse’ were least reliability and deleted from questionnaire. Others were reliable. (It might be better to say how many questions remained finally) Our results indicate that BRFSS Persian version questionnaire has acceptable reliability and criterion validity for surveillance system in Iran.