cultural adaption, validation and factor analysis of the persian version of the non-nutritive sucking scoring system

Background: valid and reliable tools are required to measure non-nutritive sucking and oral feeding readiness of preterm infants. the aim of this study was to translate the non-nutritive sucking scoring system (nns) into persian language and to evaluate its measurement properties.methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted to translate and cross-culturally adapt the nns to persian language (p-nns) following steps described in guidelines. eighty-eight preterm infants participated in this study. psychometric properties of floor/ceiling effects, internal consistency reliability, inter-rater reliability, standard error of measurement (sem), smallest detectable change (sdc) and construct validity were tested. factor analysis was performed to determine the p-nns structure.results: there were no floor or ceiling effects that indicate the content and responsiveness of p-nns. internal consistency was high (cronbach's α 0.905). item–total correlations exceeded acceptable standard of 0.3 for the all the items (0.3–0.9). the inter-rater reliability was excellent (k=0.91, se=0.04; p<0.001). sem and sdc were 8.04 and 22.28, respectively. construct validity was supported by a significant correlation between the p-nns total score and the persian version of the early feeding skills (efs) total score (r=0.94, p<0.001). explanatory factor analysis revealed 2 components for p-nns.conclusion: the p-nns was cross-culturally adapted to persian and demonstrated to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure non-nutritive sucking and oral feeding readiness of preterm infants.