Evaluation of Psychometric Proprieties of Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA) in Italian Language: A Cross-Sectional Study

TL;DR

This study translated and validated the Italian version of a swallowing ability assessment tool for post-stroke patients, finding it reliable and valid for clinical use.

Contribution

The study provides a culturally adapted and validated Italian version of the MASA tool for dysphagia assessment in post-stroke individuals.

Findings

The MASA-IT showed excellent internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha between 0.86 and 0.89.

It demonstrated high inter-rater (0.98) and intra-rater (0.99) reliability.

MASA-IT had strong concurrent validity with DOSS (r = 0.949) and inverse correlation with De Pippo Test (r = −0.783).

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to translate, culturally adapt, and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA) in post-stroke individuals. The original MASA scale was translated and culturally adapted from English to Italian following the international guidelines. The internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the MASA-IT were assessed, and its concurrent validity was examined through Pearson correlation coefficients with the Italian versions of two established gold standard scales for dysphagia assessment: the Dysphagia Outcome Severity Scale (DOSS) and the De Pippo Test—Three Oz Water Swallow. The MASA-IT was administered to 78 participants. The items demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging between 0.86 and 0.89. The interclass correlation coefficient was 0.98 for inter-rater reliability and 0.99 for intra-rater reliability, indicating high reproducibility. Regarding concurrent validity, the MASA-IT showed a strong direct correlation with the DOSS scale (r = 0.949, p = 0.01) and an inverse correlation with the De Pippo Test (r = −0.783, p = 0.01), confirming its good concurrent validity. The Italian version of the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA-IT) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing swallowing ability in post-stroke patients. Its strong psychometric properties make it well suited for clinical use in Italy.