Development and Some Psychometric Properties of Twi (Ghanaian) Version of the Visual Analogue Scale

Abstract

The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is one of the most widely accepted pain assessment scales. The availability of assessment scales in the native language of a people is however expected to further enhance the acceptability and utilization of such a scale. This study was carried out to develop and validate the Twi version of the Visual Analogue Scale among Ghanaians who had undergone gynecological surgery. The Original (English) version of the Visual Analogue Scale (OVAS) was translated into Twi, a language widely spoken in Ghana, West Africa. Sixty women who had undergone different gynecological surgeries assessed their pain using the OVAS and the Twi VAS (TVAS). The pain assessments were carried out for 5 consecutive post-operative days. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics while Spearman rank order correlation coefficient rho was calculated to analyse the relationship between the OVAS and TVAS.Results obtained showed that the scores of the OVAS and TVAS correlated significantly for all the 5 postoperative days. The highest correlation (rho= 0.82) was observed on the 5^th post-operative day. It was concluded that the Twi version of the VAS as a valid translation of the Original VAS demonstrate good construct and concurrent validity and may be used for the assessment of post-operative gynecological pain among Twi-speaking people of West Africa.