620 Stroke self-efficacy questionnaire (SSEQ), a reliable measure of disease burden: psychometric validation of the Romanian version

Abstract

Abstract: Self-efficacy is a relevant outcome measure of functional status in stroke research. It can be measured with various patient-reported outcome (PRO) tools which can be generic or disease (stroke) related.  However in Romania there is a limited availability of such measures. The Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire(SSEQ) is a specific PRO scale which measures the impact of stroke on self-management and on performance of  daily activities. We conducted a two stage study: the first one being represented by translation and cross-cultural adaptation of SSEQ-Romanian version (SSEQ-RO) and the second one consisting of a prospective cohort clinical study designed  for psychometric validation of the SSEQ-RO. For the enrolled stroke patients Barthel index, quality of life and indexes of disease severity such as NIHSS, MRC and mRS,  were measured at baseline and ten days. For psychometric validation we assessed construct validity, reliability and repetability. In a sample of fifty stroke patients, SSEQ-RO was found to have a very good construct validity, excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92) and repetability (ICC = 0.91). SSEQ-RO was also found to be a good measure of disease burden in mild versus moderate to severe stroke as assessed with NIHSS (p = 0.002). In conclussion, for stroke patients, SSEQ-RO is a reliable PRO able to asses the impact of stroke on the ability to perform daily activities and therefore can reliably be used to monitor functional status dynamics during disease course.