Cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the protocol evaluation of the ability to sing easily

Abstract

Purpose: To present the cross-cultural equivalence of the Brazilian version of the Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily (EASE) protocol, through its cultural and linguistic adaptation. Methods: After the EASE was translated to Brazilian Portuguese, the back-translation into English was done. The items of the translated version were compared with the original instrument and the discrepancies were modified by consensus of a committee composed of five speech language pathologists. The Evaluation of the Ability to Sing Easily for Brazil (EASE-BR) has 22 questions with four alternatives: "no," "mildly," "moderately," and "extremely." The score is obtained by the simple sum of all answers. The three positive items (6, 12, and 21) require reverse score. For cultural equivalence, the EASE-BR was applied with 41 Brazilian singers, with an extra item in the answer key - "not applicable." The aim of this extra key was to identify issues that might not have been understood or were not appropriate for the target population and the Brazilian culture. Results: Of the 32 singers, 5 who were initially evaluated had difficulties to answer 3 of the 22 questions. Therefore, the adaptation of those sentences was necessary. Afterward, the modified EASE-BR was applied to nine singers, and no more cultural and/or conceptual barriers were found. Conclusion: Cultural equivalence was observed between EASE and its translated version to the Brazilian Portuguese, the EASE-BR. Validation of the EASE for Brazilian Portuguese is in progress.