Background: The Hand Scleroderma Lived Experience (HAnDE) Scale is a patient-reported outcome measure evaluating the comprehensive impact of hand involvement on the life experiences of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) [1].

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the HAnDE into the Turkish language and investigate its reliability and validity in Turkish-speaking patients with SSc.

Methods: Individuals diagnosed with SSc, aged between 18 and 65, were included in the study. The HAnDE was cross-culturally adapted according to Beaton’s guideline. Participants completed the Turkish version of HAnDE scale (HAnDE-T), The Mouth Handicap in Systemic Sclerosis Scale (MHISS), 36 Item Short Form Survey (SF-36), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Internal consistency of the HAnDE-T questionnaire was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Convergent validity was tested using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The construct validity of the HAnDE-T questionnaire was assessed by factor analysis. The construct validity of the HAnDE-T was evaluated by correlating the scores between HAnDE-T and HAQ, SF-36 PCS, SF-36 MCS and MHISS scores.

Results: Seventy-seven patients with SSc were enrolled in the study. Internal consistency reliability of HAnDE-T was Cronbach alpha = 0.9, indicating excellent reliability. As for the convergent validity, the test-retest reliability of the HAnDE-T was found to be significant at 0.60. KMO was 0.829, demonstrating that was the adequacy of the sample for factor analysis. The Bartlett Sphericity value was significant (Chi-square= 663.085, p<0.001). According to the results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis, HAnDE has four factor dimensions and the variance of the factor’s explanation is 69.5%. There was a moderate and positive correlation between HAnDE-T and HAQ (r=0.51, p<0.001). The HAnDE-T score was moderately and negatively correlated with the physical (r=-0.52, p<0.001) and mental components of the SF-36 (r=-0.38, p<0.001). As expected, there was a low and positive correlation between HAnDE-T and MHISS (r=0.35, p<0.005).

Conclusion: The HAnDE-T is a valid and reliable scale to assess the comprehensive impact of hand involvement on the life experiences in Turkish-speaking patients with systemic sclerosis. Patients in the current study were recruited from the same clinic, it is recommended that patients from different centers be included in future studies.

REFERENCES: [1] Sibeoni J, Dunogué B, Dupont A, Haiddar D, Benmostefa N, Falissard B, Mouthon L, Révah-Levy A, Verneuil L (2022) Development and validation of a patient-reported outcome in systemic sclerosis: the Hand scleroDerma lived Experience (HAnDE) scale. Br J Dermatol. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.20688 .

Acknowledgements: NIL.

Disclosure of Interests: None declared.

© The Authors 2025. This abstract is an open access article published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ). Neither EULAR nor the publisher make any representation as to the accuracy of the content. The authors are solely responsible for the content in their abstract including accuracy of the facts, statements, results, conclusion, citing resources etc.