The aim of this study was to validate the paediatric Gait, Arms, Legs, Spine (pGALS) tool for Mexican Spanish to screen Mexican paediatric population for musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. A cross-sectional study was performed in the Paediatric Hospital of the Mexican Social Security Institute in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The validation included children and adolescents aged 6-16 years, 87 patients with musculoskeletal disorders and 88 controls without musculoskeletal disorders. The cross-cultural validation followed the current published guidelines. The average pGALS administration time was 2.9 min (SD 0.54). The internal consistency score (Cronbach's α) was 0.90 (0.89 for inflammatory and 0.77 for non-inflammatory disorders) for MSK disorders, with a sensitivity of 97 % (95 % CI 92-99 %), a specificity of 93 % (95 % CI 86-97 %), a LR+ of 14.3, and a ROC curve of 0.95 (95 % CI 0.92-0.98 %). The inflammatory disorders group had a sensitivity of 97 % (95 % CI 86-99 %), a specificity of 93 % (95 % CI 86-97 %), a LR+ of 14.2, and a ROC curve of 0.95 % (95 % CI 0.91-0.99 %). The non-inflammatory disorders group had a sensitivity of 98 % (95 % CI 89-99 %), a specificity of 93 % (95 % CI 86-97 %), and a LR+ of 14.37, with a ROC curve of 0.95 % (95 % CI 0.92-0.98 %). pGALS is a valid screening tool, fast, easy to administer, and useful for detecting musculoskeletal disorders in Mexican children and adolescents.
Keywords: Musculoskeletal disorder; Screening; Validation; pGALS.