Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Thyroidectomy-Related Voice Questionnaire (TVQ) to Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

Purpose: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Thyroidectomy-Related Voice Questionnaire (TVQ) to Brazilian Portuguese. Methods: We divided the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation into the following stages: two independent translations; synthesis of the translations; analysis by an expert committee; pretest; back-translation; final synthesis; and final version. We performed the pretest with 20 patients before or after thyroidectomy. We characterized the sample by means of descriptive analysis, and calculated the agreement between the experts by the Item Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and the Questionnaire Content Validity Index (Q-CVI). Results: Throughout the translation and cross-cultural adaptation, the instrument required operational, semantic, idiomatic, and syntactic/grammatical equivalences, especially after the analyses by the experts and the target population. The I-CVI and Q-CVI were mostly acceptable. The back-translation was equivalent to the original version. The comparison between the original, translated, and back-translated versions made possible the final version. Conclusion: We translated and adapted the TVQ to Brazilian Portuguese. The questionnaire is suitable for the next steps of the validation process.