Validation of the Italian version of self-administered ALSFRS-R scale

Objectives: To validate and assess the reliability of the Italian version of self-administered ALSFRS-R, considering patients’ clinical and cognitive features and caregiver’s help. Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, by analyzing the results of 70 paired self-administered vs standard telephone-administered ALSFRS-R, we calculated overall score, single item scores, ALSFRS-R domain scores, King’s and MiToS stage inter-rater agreement and reliability using different validated methods. We created the Italian version of self-administered ALSFRS-R following ENCALS recommendation. Results: Correlation between the two scales was 0.94 and no systematic directional bias was found. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was very high (>0.90) for the vast majority of the considered classification criteria, especially King’s total score (0.96) and MiToS score (0.94). A higher ICC was found when the patients answered the questionnaire with the caregiver’s help (0.95). Conclusions: Online self-administered ALSFRS-R scale is a valid tool to stratify ALS patients into clinical stages and to implement telemedicine monitoring.