OBJECTIVE

A report on the cross-cultural adaptation and validation process of the Rome IV Diagnostic Questionnaire for children aged four years and over into Saudi-Arabian Arabic for use in assessing the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders in children in Saudi Arabia.

METHOD

A mixed-methods approach was used in translating the 60-item original English version of the questionnaire. The process included four steps followed by a cognitive debriefing and was guided by the Rome Foundation. The questionnaire was tested for practicability with 10 participants of children aged four years and older. The whole study took place between October 2020 and April 2021.

RESULTS

The original questionnaire repeated information on areas of pain experienced by children, which did not show up in the backward, English, translation. The back-translated version occasionally provided medical expressions that were then explained between parentheses in plain English, for example, dyspepsia (burning feeling). The expert panel indicated that all questionnaire items reached the set 90% agreement level, confirming that the questionnaire is fully understandable and valid for use. Preliminary testing with 10 participants (four years and older) revealed functional constipation to have the highest prevalence among the participants (40%, n=4), followed by irritable bowel syndrome (20%) and abdominal migraine (20%).

CONCLUSION

This study provides a detailed report on the translation process of the tested ROME- IV Diagnostic Questionnaire for children aged four years and over into Saudi Arabic following Rome Foundation guidelines. The results of the preliminary test should encourage researchers and clinicians in Saudi Arabia to utilize the tool for non-invasive diagnosis of functional gastrointestinal disorders in children.