The Multidimensional Daily Diary of Fatigue-Fibromyalgia-17 Items (MDF-Fibro-17): Evidence from Validity, Reliability and Transcultural Invariance Between Portugal and Brazil

• Main Authors: Marcos C. Álvarez, Maria Luiza L. Albuquerque, Henrique P. Neiva, Luís Cid, Diogo Monteiro, Filipe Rodrigues, Diogo S. Teixeira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical Medicine
• Subjects: fibromyalgia; fatigue; questionnaire; cross-cultural validity; measurement invariance
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/8/2330

The Multidimensional Daily Diary of Fatigue-Fibromyalgia-17 (MDF-fibro-17) is an instrument that measures the different components of fibromyalgia-related fatigue symptoms. The current study aims to examine the factor structure of the MDF-fibro-17 in a sample of Portuguese and Brazilian patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Additionally, a cross-cultural analysis was carried out on these samples to understand the multidimensional complexity of examining the different dimensions of fatigue in patients with different cultural backgrounds and how fibromyalgia impacts patients with this syndrome. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the psychometric properties of the measure. Additionally, a multigroup analysis was carried out on the samples of these two cultures to examine measurement invariance. In total, 209 Portuguese women aged between 21 and 75 years (M = 47.44; SD = 10.73) and 429 Brazilians women aged between 16 and 77 years (M = 46.51; SD = 9.24) participated in this study. The results revealed that the measurement model provided an acceptable fit to the data in both the Portuguese and Brazilian samples, also displaying acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the model showed acceptable internal consistency and was invariant between cultures. In sum, the MDF-fibro-17 is a valid measure that offers a unique assessment of fatigue symptoms in Portuguese and Brazilian women with fibromyalgia.