Transcultural Adaptation of the Spanish Version of the ABILHAND Scale for Hand Surgery in a Colombian Population of Patients with Hand Pathologies.

Purpose: Because manual ability is a latent and complex variable that is closely linked to an individual's well-being and daily functioning, it is important to assess it through patient-reported outcome measures that capture the patient's own perception of dexterity in everyday life. This study aimed to develop a Spanish version of the ABILHAND-Hs scale that is equivalent to the original but adapted to evaluate the most prevalent hand pathologies in Colombia. Methods: A group of bilingual experts translated the ABILHAND scale from English into Spanish using a forward-backward translation method. A patient focus group evaluated the suitability and comprehensibility of each item. The researchers administered the Spanish version of the scale, along with the Results: The Spanish version of the ABILHAND-Hs covers a measurement range of 6.27 logits and includes 19 bimanual items and two unimanual activities on a 3-level grading scale. The instrument demonstrates validity, reliability, unidimensionality, and local independence and shows no important differential item functioning based on patient characteristics. It correlates fairly with SF-12, moderately with Conclusions: ABILHAND-Hs in Spanish achieves conceptual, semantic, operational, and functional equivalence with the original instrument. Type of study/level of evidence: Diagnostic Ib.