Malay Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale: Translation and psychometric evaluation

• The PATE scale is developed to measure public attitudes toward epilepsy.
• Translation was performed using a three-stage cross-cultural adaptation process.
• The translated version was tested for psychometric validation.
• No quantitative scale for attitudes toward epilepsy was translated in Malay.
• The Malay PATE scale is a validated and reliable translated scale.

IntroductionNone of the quantitative scales for public attitudes toward epilepsy had been translated to Malay language. This study aimed to translate and test the validity and reliability of a Malay version of the Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale.MethodThe translation was performed according to standard principles and tested in 140 Malay-speaking adults aged more than 18 years for psychometric validation.ResultsThe items in each domain had similar standard deviations (equal item variance), ranging from 0.90 to 1.00 in the personal domain and from 0.87 to 1.23 in the general domain. The correlation between an item and its domain was 0.4 and above for all items and was higher than the correlation with the other domain. Multitrait analysis showed that the Malay PATE had a similar variance, floor and ceiling effects, and relative relationship between the domains as the original PATE. The Malay PATE scale showed a similar correlation with almost all demographic variables except age. Item means were generally clustered in the factor analysis as the hypothesized domains, except those for items 1 and 2. The Cronbach's α values were within acceptable range (0.757 and 0.716 for the general and personal domains, respectively).ConclusionThe Malay PATE scale is a validated and reliable translated version for measuring public attitudes toward epilepsy.