Background: The University of Western Ontario Questionnaire for Musculoskeletal Conditions in Senior Golfers (MSK Golfers) was developed in Canada because of a lack of knowledge concerning musculoskeletal conditions directly related to golf play and warm-up, although the high injury incidence in golf practice. This lack of epidemiological measures also exists for the Portuguese golf population.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the MSK Golfers questionnaire into Portuguese and to test its construct validity and reproducibility.
Methods: The MSK Golfers was translated from English to Portuguese and tested for psychometric properties. Sixty-one golfers, aged between 14 and 70 years and with at least 1 year of practice in golf, were recruited. The validity of the MSK Golfers was assessed by evaluating data quality (missing, floor and ceiling effects). Reproducibility analysis included intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) (2,1) and Cohen's Kappa coefficient.
Results: The ICC values for continuous items ranged from 0.634 to 0.998 with the exception of one item on golf activity. Kappa statistics for the categorical items ranged between 0.714 and 1.00.
Conclusions: The Portuguese version of the MSK Golfers, including playing characteristics and warm-up patterns of golfers, showed a high reliability for a golfing population with an age range of 14 to 70 years.
Keywords: Questionnaire; golf; musculoskeletal injuries; sport medicine.