Test of Reliability and Validation of Neck Disability Index Questionnaire in Local Languages of Pakistan

The Neck Disability Index is a state-unambiguous instrument for the description of a disability. It is revised from the Oswestry Low Back Pain Questionnaire It contains 10 items mentioning various activities (personal care, lifting, driving, work, sleeping, concentration, reading, recreation) and pain (pain intensity, headache) with 6 conceivable answers for each item. Patients are educated to choose only one answer which most closely suits their condition at the current time. The score of each item ranges between 0 (no pain and no functional limitation) and 5 (worst pain and maximal limitation) that lead to the total score of 0 (no disability) to 50 (totally disabled), as 0-4 points (no disability), 5-14 points (10-28% disability), 15-24 points (30-48% disability), 25-34 points (50-64% disability) and 35-50 points (70-100% disability). The meantime to fill the questionnaire is 3-7.8 minutes. The NDI showed high validity and reliability for patients with neck pain.

By this study, the accuracy and reproducibility of the translated versions of NDI questionnaires will be enhanced and thus can create a useful measure to obtain data from culturally/linguistically diverse people belonging to different ethnic background as in Pakistan. It will create trustworthiness among clinicians and researchers to utilize the tool as a measure of what it is supposed to measure.