Validation of the Egyptian Version of the Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST)

Introduction: The Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST) is a brief, simple, and straight forward self-administered questionnaire that was developed by Perrot et al. for the detection of fibromyalgia syndrome in patients with diffuse chronic pain. Aim: The aim of our study was to develop and validate the Egyptian version of FiRST. Methods: The study was set up as a prospective observational study. The original French version of FiRST was adapted into Egyptian using forward and backward translation. Patients with chronic diffuse pain with a clinical diagnosis of fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis based on the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology were invited to participate to the study. Results: 140 patients who met our inclusion criteria, 80 were diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 60 with osteoarthritis. The 2 groups were matched gender and pain characteristics (duration, intensity). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.83. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 89% (95% confidence interval = 83 to 95%; SE: 0.032, P < 0.001). At a cutoff score of ≥ 5, FiRST showed a sensitivity of 86%, a specificity of 83%, a positive predictive value of 78%, and a negative predictive value of 89%. The intra class coefficient for the test–retest reliability was 0.96. Conclusion: The Egyptian version of FiRST is a valid screening tool for fibromyalgia in daily practice.