cross-cultural adaptation and validation of kurdish version of the nasal obstruction symptoms evaluation (nose)

Nasal obstruction can negatively impact the quality of life (qol). the nasal obstruction symptom evaluation (nose) scale is a validated tool for assessing nasal obstruction symptoms. this study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and validate the nose questionnaire in kurdish for patients undergoing nasal surgery in iraq. this cross-sectional study was conducted from april 2022 to january 2023 at a publicly funded medical center located in sulaymaniyah, iraq. using forward-backward translation, the nose questionnaire was translated into kurdish. psychometric evaluation was conducted in 136 patients who underwent rhinoplasty or septoplasty. test-retest reliability and internal consistency were used to evaluate reliability. responsiveness was determined by comparing pre-and post-operative scores. cronbach’s alpha for the nose-k total score was 0.9999, indicating excellent consistency. in the test-retest reliability assessment, the intraclass correlation coefficient (icc; 0.9999, 95%ci: 0.9999-0.9999) and kappa (0.995; 95% ci, 0.993-0.997) demonstrated excellent reliability. the validity of lin’s concordance correlation coefficient (ccc; 0.9999, 95%ci: 0.9998 to 0.9999) of the nose-k total score showed a strong correlation and concordance between the two measures, respectively. no ceiling or floor effects were observed (0%).  the effect size (es) and standardized response mean (srm) of the nose-k total score were -0.003 (95%ci: -0.005 to -0.001) and -0.165 (95%ci: -0.246 to -0.079), respectively. the current study shows that the nose-k is a reliable and valid tool for assessing patients with septum-related symptoms. concerning nose-k’s strong validity, good internal consistency, repeatability, and reliability, its use is advised.