[Evaluation of the North American Spine Society Instrument for assessment of health status in patients with chronic backache].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The translation/back and translation and validation of the North American Spine Society (NASS) Instrument in German was published recently. This contribution aims at describing the scoring of this questionnaire.

METHOD

The scoring is oriented on the recommendations of the developing scientists of the US-American original, with whom we cooperated during the German validation.

RESULTS

The scoring algorithm is described, a program for computerized scoring in SPSS was written. Program syntax and the questionnaire are reproduced.

CONCLUSION

The contribution enables interested researchers to apply and score the NASS questionnaire in German-speaking countries.