Translation, Content Validity, and Internal Consistency of the Persian Version of the Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the Elderly with Parkinson's Disease

The fear of falling is common in people with Parkinson's disease. One of the most common tools to measure the fear of falling in these patients is the Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the Elderly (SAFFE). No Persian version of the SAFFE is available and no study on the reliability and validity of this scale has been conducted in Iran. The main objective of the present study was to develop a Persian version of the SAFFE scale to assess fear of falling and activities in people with Parkinson's disease.
After obtaining permission from the developer of the original scale, the Persian version was prepared according to the International Quality Of Life Assessment Protocol (IQOLA). To review the clarity and necessity of the translated items, CVI and CVR methods were applied. The internal consistency of the items was also measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.
The clarity and necessity of the translated items based on the scores of CVI and CVR were acceptable. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was very high for fear of falling and activity restriction level, and moderate for activity level. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was very good for the entire scale (α = 0.93)
The Persian version of SAFFE had very good content validity and internal consistency of items and can serve as a useful tool in the clinical assessment of fear of falling and activities in patients with Parkinson's disease.