Validation of Malayalam Translation of the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (MSSQ): A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study

The study aimed to cross-linguistically adapt the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire in Malayalam (MSSQ) and to determine its psychometric properties. The objectives of our study were to document the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and discriminant validity of MSSQ. The SSQ was translated from English to Malayalam, and was administered to 55 Malayalam-speaking participants with oropharyngeal dysphagia and 55 age- and gender-matched Malayalam speakers with normal swallowing ability. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was performed to check the normality of the data. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure the test-retest reliability. Internal consistency was measured through split-half reliability using the Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient. The discriminant validity was documented using the Mann-Whitney U-test. The Cronbach's alpha value for the total MSSQ scores was 0.99, indicating a strong positive correlation between the test and retest scores. The Spearman-Brown correlation coefficient was 0.97, indicating that the MSSQ had excellent internal consistency. Mann-Whitney U -test revealed that Group 1 participants had significantly higher MSSQ scores than Group 2 participants, exhibiting excellent discriminant validity. It was concluded that the MSSQ was a valid and reliable tool to assess the symptoms of dysphagia among Malayalam speakers.