The development and initial validation of the Russian version of the BASIS-24

• Published in: Addiction science & clinical practice 2022-11, Vol.17 (1), p.65-7, Article 65
• Main Authors: Madden, Lynn M, Farnum, Scott O, Bromberg, Daniel J, Barry, Declan T, Mazhnaya, Alyona, Fomenko, Tetiana, Meteliuk, Anna, Marcus, Ruthanne, Rozanova, Julia, Poklad, Iurii, Dvoriak, Sergii, Altice, Frederick L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictions; Analgesics, Opioid; Analysis; Basis; BASIS-24-R; Demographics; Development and progression; Disease transmission; Drug use; Eastern Europe; Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA); Epidemics; Health care access; Health status; Hepatitis C; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; HIV Infections - diagnosis; HIV Infections - epidemiology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Implementation Science; Integrated delivery systems; Medical personnel; Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD); Mental health; Mortality; Narcotics; Opioid-Related Disorders; Opioids; Prevention; Prevention programs; Preventive medicine; Principal components analysis; PWID; Quantitative psychology; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Russia; Russian language; Sexually transmitted diseases; Substance abuse treatment; Substance use disorder; Tuberculosis
• ISSN: 1940-0640; 1940-0632; 1940-0640
• DOI: 10.1186/s13722-022-00343-0

Efficient and linguistically appropriate instruments are needed to assess response to addiction treatment, including severity of addiction/mental health status. This is critical for Russian-speaking persons in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) where Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) remain underscaled to address expanding and intertwined opioid, HIV, HCV and tuberculosis epidemics. We developed and conducted a pilot validation of a Russian version of the 24-item Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-24), an addiction/mental health severity instrument with six subscales, previously validated in English. Using the Mapi approach, we reviewed, translated, and back-translated the content to Russian, pilot-tested the Russian-version (BASIS-24-R) among new MOUD patients in Ukraine (N = 283). For a subset of patients (n = 44), test-rest was performed 48 h after admission to reassess reliability of BASIS-24-R. Exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) assessed underlying structure of BASIS-24-R. Cronbach alpha coefficients for overall BASIS-24-R and 5 subscales exceeded 0.65; coefficient for Relationship subscale was 0.42. The Pearson correlation coefficients for overall score and all subscales on the BASIS-24-R exceeded 0.8. Each item loaded onto factors that corresponded with English BASIS-24 subscales ≥ 0.4 in PCA. Initial version of BASIS-24-R appears statistically valid in Russian. Use of the BASIS-24-R has potential to guide MOUD treatment delivery in the EECA region and help to align addiction treatment with HIV prevention goals in a region where HIV is concentrated in people who inject opioids and where healthcare professionals have not traditionally perceived MOUD as effective treatment, particularly for those with mental health co-morbidities.