The French version of the surgical fear questionnaire is a valid and reproducible score to assess the fear of surgery

• Fear of surgery can affect the clinical outcomes of surgical interventions. • The surgical fear questionnaire (SFQ) is an objective and reliable tool to evaluate the fear of surgery. • The original Dutch version has been translated in several other languages, but has not been translated into French. • The proposed French version of SFQ should be reproducible and valid among a French population to assess the fear of surgery in adult patients. The Surgical Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) is a reliable tool to measure fear of surgery. It is the only self-reporting questionnaire that is suitable for all adult surgeries. It has been translated into numerous languages from the original Dutch version, but there is no French version to date. The aim of this study was to draft and validate a French version of the SFQ. A prospective study including 83 subjects who were scheduled for hallux valgus surgery was performed. The validity of the SFQ was based on its correlation to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), using Spearman's correlation coefficient. The internal consistency of the SFQ was determined by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient, while the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate reliability. The average total French SFQ score was 36.7. There was a strong correlation between the French SFQ score and the two subscales of the STAI scale, STAI-Y1 and STAI-Y2, with a Spearman correlation of 0.65 (0.49–0,77) and 0.62 (0.45–0.76), respectively. The internal consistency was high, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.93 (0.91–0.95), indicating limited redundancy. The reliability was good, with an ICC of 0.77 (0.60–0.87). The main limitations of this study were the population which was mainly women, the redundancy of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the lack of a standardized moment in time to fill in the questionnaire. The French version of SFQ is a valid, reproducible tool to assess the fear of surgery in adult patients.