Validity and reliability of the Iranian-developed version of the leisure questionnaire for people with multiple sclerosis: Psychometric properties

Background: An effective and reliable assessment tool is essential for evaluating the leisure activities of patients. The purpose of this study is to assess the validity and reliability of the Iranian-developed version of leisure questionnaire for people with multiple sclerosis (MS).Methods: Psychometric methods were used to assess face, content, differential, and convergent validity, as well as test-retest reliability. The study used SPSS software to enter data and assessed content validity using descriptive characteristics and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) based on ratings by experts. Independent t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the differential validity, while the Pearson test was used to analyse the convergent validity by comparing it with the Nottingham Leisure Questionnaire (NLQ). The study calculated the reliability of the questionnaire using the paired t-test and ICC.Results: The subjects were 60 patients with MS. The content validity analysis showed a single measure validity coefficient of 0.158 and an average measure coefficient of 0.751, both of which were statistically significant. The results of the differential validity analysis for the entire questionnaire were also significant (t = -3.058, P = 0.003). Additionally, the convergent validity and reliability of the questionnaire were 0.92 and 0.82, respectively.Conclusion: The 50-item leisure questionnaire designed for patients with MS demonstrated good validity and reliability. Therefore, it can be used as an effective research tool for exploring the leisure activities of individuals with MS.