Background: The Musculoskeletal Pain Intensity and Interference Questionnaire for Professional Orchestra Musicians (MPIIQM) is a prominent patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) in the musicians' health literature. It has been published in at least four languages, but not in French.
Aims: To cross-culturally adapt the MPIIQM into French and establish the preliminary psychometric properties (validity, reliability, and responsiveness) of the MPIIQM-F.
Methods: Standardized cross-cultural adaptation methods included forward translations, an expert committee, and verbal field tests in the target population. Psychometric properties were assessed in a population of French-speaking professional orchestra musicians who participated in three evaluation sessions. Evaluated properties include content, face, structural and construct validity, reliability (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, minimal detectable change [MDC], measurement error), and responsiveness (effect size and standardized response means [SRM]).
Results: Sixty-one French-speaking orchestra musicians participated in the psychometric validation. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution equivalent to previous versions, confirming the Pain Intensity and Interference subscales. Spearman correlations for construct validity were as hypothesized for four of six hypotheses (minor deviances for the other two hypotheses) using the Brief Pain Inventory, Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Performing Arts Module, and PROMIS Global Health Scale as comparators. Reliability results demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's a=0.84-0.89), excellent test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.91-0.97), and small measurement error with MDC for the overall scale <10%. Responsiveness resulted in moderate to large effect sizes and SRM (0.54-0.87).
Conclusions: Preliminary validation of the MPIIQM-F suggests good validity, reliability, and responsiveness, indicating its suitability for use in French-speaking orchestra musicians.