THE RELEVANCE OF CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION AND CLINIMETRICS FOR PHYSICAL THERAPY INSTRUMENTS

Abstract

Background: Self-report outcome measures (questionnaires) are widely used by physiotherapists for measuring patient’s health status or treatment outcomes. Most of these measurement tools were developed in English and their usefulness is very limited in non-English speaking countries such as Brazil. The only way to solve this problem is to properly adapt the relevant questionnaires into a target language and culture (e.g. Brazilian-Portuguese) and then test the instrument by checking its psychometric (clinimetric) characteristics. Objectives: The purpose of this paper was to present relevant issues in the process of cross-cultural adaptations and clinimetric testing for self-report outcome measurements. Advice on how to perform a cross-cultural adaptation, how to properly check the clinimetric properties, how to select a relevant questionnaire and how to evaluate the quality of an adapted questionnaire are provided. Additionally we present all Brazilian-Portuguese cross-cultural adaptations of low back pain measurements that we know of. Conclusions: There is a clear need for more effort in the field of cross-cultural adaptation and clinimetrics, without proper instruments, the management of patients from non-English speaking countries is compromised.