[French adaptation of a new score for global assessment of psoriasis severity: The Simplified Psoriasis Index (SPI)]. / Adaptation française d'un nouveau score destiné à l'évaluation globale de la sévérité du psoriasis : l'Indice Simplifié du Psoriasis (Simplified Psoriasis Index, SPI).

OBJECTIVE: Although several scores exist to assess psoriasis severity, most have marked limitations that rule out their use in routine clinical practice. A new score, the Simplified Psoriasis Index (SPI), has recently been developed and validated in adults in Britain for such use. It has separate components for current severity (SPI-s), psychosocial impact (SPI-p) and past history and interventions (SPI-p), and it is suitable for either professional assessment or patient self-assessment. The aim of this work was to produce a validated translation of SPI into French (as spoken in France). METHODS: The index was translated and validated using a strict methodology comprising respectively five and eight phases for the professional (proSPI) and self-administered instruments (saSPI). Translation of the saSPI instrument also involved a cognitive debriefing with five psoriasis patients. RESULTS: Linguistic discrepancies and subtle differences of meaning arising during the process were closely examined. The developer of the instrument ensured conceptual accuracy. A panel of health experts guaranteed that medical terms were correctly translated. Five patients with plaque psoriasis (two female and three male of median age 45 years [range: 31-78]) tested the SPI-p version during cognitive interviews and found the questionnaire clear and easy to understand. CONCLUSION: Validated French translations of both SPI instruments are now available for use in routine clinical practice. Further investigations are currently underway to validate the psychometric properties of the instrument.

Cross-cultural adaptation and linguistic validation of age-group-specific haemophilia patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments for patients and parents.

Currently, haemophilia care aims to provide the best possible quality of life for individuals living with this chronic disease. Many factors are known to influence treatment adherence, including treatment satisfaction. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and treatment satisfaction are, therefore, important outcomes in clinical trials and clinical practice. As individuals' perception of their well-being often differs from that of their physician, it is recommended that self-report instruments are used to assess patient-reported outcomes (PROs). The way that the impact of haemophilia is perceived by the patient and their family can be different, so it is important to assess how parents perceive the impact on their children. A series of PRO instruments have been developed, adapted to different age groups and parents of patients with haemophilia. To allow the instruments to be used internationally, culturally adapted and linguistically validated translations have been developed; some instruments have been translated into 61 languages. Here, we report the process used for cultural adaptation of the Haemo-QoL, Haem-A-QoL and Hemo-Sat into 28 languages. Equivalent concepts for 22 items that were difficult to adapt culturally for particular languages were identified and classed as semantic/conceptual (17 items), cultural (three items), idiomatic (one item), and grammatical (one item) problems. This has resulted in linguistically validated versions of these instruments, which can be used to assess HRQoL and treatment satisfaction in clinical trials and clinical practice. They will provide new insights into areas of haemophilia that remain poorly understood today.

Linguistic validation of the Cardiff Wound Impact Schedule into French, German and US English.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic leg wounds can represent a major health problem and have a negative emotional impact on patients' lives. The Cardiff Wound Impact Schedule (CWIS) was developed by the Wound Healing Research Unit at University of Wales College of Medicine to assess the quality of life in patients with chronic wounds. METHOD: To perform the linguistic validation (translation) of the CWIS into German, French and US English as a first step in making the questionnaire available globally. The standard linguistic validation process employed by the Mapi Research Institute was used to translate the CWIS into French and German. An adjusted process was used for the US English translation. RESULTS: The linguistic validation of the US English version was straightforward as it shares the same root language with the original UK version. The problems encountered in the French and German translations were mostly related to semantics and syntax. CONCLUSION: The CWIS is now available for further validation testing by the international community (the psychometric evaluation of each translated questionnaire). These translations will be useful to health-care providers undertaking formal quality-of-life assessments of patients with chronic leg wounds.

Cross-cultural comparisons of the content of SF-36 translations across 10 countries: results from the IQOLA Project. International Quality of Life Assessment.

Increasingly, translated and culturally adapted health-related quality of life measures are being used in cross-cultural research. To assess comparability of results, researchers need to know the comparability of the content of the questionnaires used in different countries. Based on an item-by-item discussion among International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) investigators of the content of the translated versions of the SF-36 in 10 countries, we discuss the difficulties that arose in translating the SF-36. We also review the solutions identified by IQOLA investigators to translate items and response choices so that they are appropriate within each country as well as comparable across countries. We relate problems and solutions to ratings of difficulty and conceptual equivalence for each item. The most difficult items to translate were physical functioning items that refer to activities not common outside the United States and items that use colloquial expressions in the source version. Identifying the origin of the source items, their meaning to American English-speaking respondents and American English synonyms, in response to country-specific translation issues, greatly helped the translation process. This comparison of the content of translated SF-36 items suggests that the translations are culturally appropriate and comparable in their content.

Literature review of instruments to assess health-related quality of life during and after menopause.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Menopause is a physiological event occurring in women at about the age of 50. It signals the end of the reproductive years and is associated with signs of estrogen deficiency having a considerable impact on women's health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The most common form of treatment is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Studies have shown negative events can arise from long-term use of HRT. The aim of this review is to determine if there are any HRQoL instruments that address the impact of menopausal symptoms including positive and negative effects of HRT. METHODS: The following eight instruments were identified: Greene Climacteric Scale, Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ), Qualifemme, Menopause-Specific QOL Questionnaire (MENQOL), Menopausal Symptoms List (MSL), Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), Menopausal Quality of Life Scale (MQOL), and the Utian Quality of Life Scale (UQOL). RESULTS: All instruments reviewed proved to be reasonably structured and have their place in applied research. None were found that addressed all aspects of the impact of HRT on HRQoL. CONCLUSION: In order to capture the possible short-term side effects of HRT on HRQoL, it is necessary to modify one or more of the existing instruments or develop a new instrument applicable in many different countries and languages.

International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project.

The International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project is a 4-year project to translate and adapt the widely used MOS SF-36 Health Survey Questionnaire in up to 15 countries and validate, norm, and document the new translations as required for their use in international studies of health outcomes. In addition to the eight-scale SF-36 health profile, the project will also validate psychometrically based physical and mental health summary scores, as well as health utility indexes incorporating SF-36 scales for use in cost-utility studies.