Background: The Standardised Nordic Questionnaire (SNQ) is an instrument to analyse the musculoskeletal symptoms in an ergonomic or occupational health context. We aimed to cross-culturally adapt and evaluate the psychometric properties of the SNQ among Spanish musicians.
Methods: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation (reliability, validity, and feasibility) was performed. Reliability was analysed by test-retest reliability (Cohen's Kappa) and internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson). Content and face validity were measured by the Expert Committee and the opinion of participants. Construct validity (Mann-Whitney U test) was measured by comparing with questionnaires used to assess pain and disability in neck, shoulders, upper back, and low back regions. Feasibility was calculated with the average response time.
Results: A total of 312 Spanish musicians were included. The Spanish version of SNQ achieved good semantic, conceptual, idiomatic, and content equivalence. For most of the variables, test-retest reliability was good to very good (k = 0.60-0.81). The internal consistency showed good to acceptable (Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR20) = 0.737-0.873). Participants with versus without musculoskeletal problems in a related region showed significantly higher disability/pain, indicating a good construct validity. About the feasibility, the average response time of the questionnaire was 6 min (±2).
Conclusions: The results show that the Spanish SNQ is reliable, valid, and feasible screening tool to assess musculoskeletal problems among musicians.
Keywords: Spanish; Standardised Nordic Questionnaire; musculoskeletal symptoms; musicians; reliability; validation; validity.