E3 PreliminaryModerate confidencePEM unclearMethods-PaperPeer-reviewedMachine draft
The Hindi Version of International Consensus Criteria: A Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation Study for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in Post-COVID Patients.
Shah, Mansi, Kakar, Atul, Gogia, Atul · The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India · 2022 · DOI
Quick Summary
This study created and tested a Hindi-language version of a tool that doctors use to diagnose ME/CFS. Researchers translated the original English diagnostic criteria into Hindi and verified that it works just as well for Hindi-speaking patients in India. This makes it easier for more people to be accurately identified and diagnosed with ME/CFS, rather than being told they simply have fatigue from long COVID.
Why It Matters
Accurate diagnosis of ME/CFS is challenging in many countries, particularly where validated diagnostic tools exist only in English. This Hindi translation expands access to evidence-based diagnostic criteria for Indian patients and healthcare workers, enabling better identification of ME/CFS cases among those with long COVID and supporting large-scale epidemiological research in a multilingual country.
Observed Findings
- Individual items and global scores on ICC-H were highly correlated with ICC-E responses (p<0.001) in 53 bilingual participants.
- ICC-H baseline scores and ICC-E scores at 4-week follow-up showed no significant differences in individual components or global scores.
- The Hindi translation maintained semantic and conceptual equivalence to the original English criteria after forward translation, back-translation, and expert review.
- The study successfully identified significant overlap in symptoms between long COVID and ME, with fatigue as a major component in both conditions.
Inferred Conclusions
- ICC-H is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing and identifying ME cases in Hindi-speaking populations.
- Regionally translated diagnostic criteria are essential for conducting large-scale surveys in multilingual countries like India.
- Many long COVID patients may meet criteria for ME, suggesting shared pathophysiological mechanisms related to post-viral neuroimmune exhaustion.
Remaining Questions
- What is the actual prevalence of ME/CFS among post-COVID patients in India using the ICC-H?
- How does the ICC-H perform in monolingual Hindi speakers who lack English proficiency?
- Are there cultural or contextual factors that affect how Hindi-speaking patients report or experience ME/CFS symptoms differently from English-speaking cohorts?
What This Study Does Not Prove
This study does not establish the prevalence of ME/CFS in post-COVID populations or prove that long COVID and ME are the same condition. It also does not demonstrate clinical outcomes or treatment efficacy—it only validates that the Hindi translation accurately measures the same diagnostic constructs as the English version. The small sample of bilingual individuals may not represent how the tool performs in monolingual Hindi speakers.
Tags
Symptom:Post-Exertional MalaiseFatigue
Phenotype:Long COVID Overlap
Method Flag:Small SampleStrong Phenotyping
Metadata
- DOI
- 10.5005/japi-11001-0090
- PMID
- 37355868
- Review status
- Machine draft
- Evidence level
- Early hypothesis, preprint, editorial, or weak support
- Last updated
- 8 April 2026
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →