Abstract Background Allergic rhinitis is a common condition that is characterized by the presence of inflammation in the nasal mucosa in response to allergen exposure. Several subjective tools were developed to evaluate and diagnose this condition. One of these tools is the total nasal symptoms score (TNSS), which is a quick and validated tool that is being used to evaluate the severity of allergic rhinitis. Hence, this study aims to translate and validate the TNSS into the Arabic language. Methods The questionnaire was translated using three steps, including forward translation, backward translation, and pilot study. After the questionnaire was translated to Arabic, the score was distributed to allergic rhinitis patients and the healthy population to assess its reliability and validity. Results A total of 160 allergic rhinitis patients and 145 healthy participants were involved in the study. These two groups were comparable in regard to the socio-demographic characteristics. The Cronbach’s alpha scores for the translated TNSS showed an excellent internal consistency with a score of 0.912. Additionally, the translated TNSS has shown a high reliability when the questionnaire was repeated again ( p < 0.0001). In comparison to the control group, the allergic rhinitis group showed significantly higher scores ( p < 0.0001), indicating a good discriminant validity of the translated TNSS. Conclusion The Arabic version of the TNSS was a reliable and valid tool to measure and evaluate the severity of allergic rhinitis patients. Thus, this instrument can be used in clinical practice and outcome studies for Arabic-speaking patients.
Alfaleh et al. (Wed,) studied this question.