Cross-cultural adaptation of the Tailored Activity Program (TAP) for Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

Introduction: The Tailored Activity Program (TAP) is an intervention program in Occupational Therapy for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. It is based on 8 home-based sessions, during 3 or 4 months. Brazil lacks an Occupational Therapy methodology of action, which justifies the cross-cultural adaptation of the TAP. Objective: To adapt the TAP reference materials “Intervention Manual” and the “Caregiver Notebook” to the Brazilian culture. Method: The methodology used proposes the translation, back translation, evaluation of semantic, idiomatic, conceptual and cultural equivalences and the pre-test of materials for production in Portuguese. Results: The translation phase adapted 17 items; the back-translation process identified distortions. In the evaluation of the semantic and idiomatic equivalence of the Manual Intervention, 74 items of 374 items evaluated were discordant; and in the Caregivers Notebook 96 items of 2051 items evaluated were discordant. Regarding to conceptual and cultural equivalence, in the Manual Intervention, 62 of 374 items evaluated were discordant and in the Caregivers Notebook, 57 of 2051 items. The discordant items were modified from suggestions given by the reviewers. After the evaluation of the committee of reviewers, we conducted a pre-test of the Portuguese versions and two items were adapted. Conclusion: The TAP has been adapted to the Brazilian culture and kept the original proposal for intervention with 8 sessions during a period of 3 to 4 months.