Last update:
29-Nov-2023

OBJECTIVE To adapt the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS) into Greek and evaluate its measurement properties in community-dwelling older adults.

METHOD Thirty-five older adults between 61 and 86 years (24 women, 11 men; mean age 72.45±6.4 years) were enrolled in this study. Permission for the cross-cultural adaptation was received from the developer of the EARS. Cross-cultural adaptation of the EARS was performed based on Beaton guidelines (forward translation, synthesis, back translation, expert committee review, and pre-testing). Participants were oriented on undertaking the prescribed home-based exercise program in the first session, and adherence behavior was assessed after one week, and finally reassessed after two weeks (test-retest reliability). Six weeks after the first assessment, they were invited again to fill the EARS for responsiveness. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC2,1) and Cronbach's α were used to assess test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The minimum detectable change (MDC) for each measure was calculated to quantify intervention effects.

RESULTS The Greek version of the EARS questionnaire (EARS-GR) was translated without major difficulties. The forward and back translation revealed no content or language-related issues. Results showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.92) and excellent test-retest reliability (ICC=0.9, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.81–0.95) for 6-item adherence behavior.

CONCLUSIONS The EARS-GR was cross-culturally adapted into Greek and was found comprehensible and reliable and may, thus, be used across Greek-speaking clinical settings and research. Further studies are recommended to investigate other psychometric properties of the EARS-GR with a larger sample, including various diseases.

Key words: Adaptation, Adherence, Exercise, Older adults, Reliability.