Translation and validation of arthritis outcome measures into Spanish

Abstract

Objective: To produce Spanish versions of common arthritis outcome measures: the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) Disability Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Pain Severity Scale, the Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale for Pain and Other Symptoms (with the addition of 2 new items), the Visual Analogue Pain Scale, the MOS Self-Rated Health Item, and a Physical Activities Scale that would be usable by most Hispanics living in the US. We tested these translated measures for reliability and, where appropriate, validity.

Methods: Instruments were translated and back translated by bilingual persons from 5 different countries of origin. Translators met to resolve variations in translation. The instruments were then administered to Hispanic arthritis patients in 6 geographic locations (5 in the United States and 1 in Latin America). All instruments underwent standard psychometric testing. As appropriate, the sample was stratified by level of acculturation, nation of origin, and geographic location.

Results: The translated instruments, with slight modification, met acceptable levels of reliability and validity. They are understood and easily usable by diverse Spanish-speaking populations.

Conclusion: The availability of these translated outcome measures should enable investigators to include monolingual Spanish-speakers into their studies, and should facilitate study of cross-cultural differences with respect to these specific outcomes.