[Functional disability indexes: translation difficulties and cross cultural adaptation problems]. / Les indices d'incapacité fonctionnelle: difficultés de traduction et problèmes d'adaptation transculturelle.

OBJECTIVES: To summarize the difficulties involved in translating tests in Arabic and to describe the translation methods and to apply those to functional indexes. METHOD: Four functional indexes were translated and then subjected to the following test validation methods: back translation, pre-test, and review by an expert committee. RESULTS: Translation problems were underlined. These include in particular the different types of equivalence between the source language and the target language (semantics, idioms, conceptual... equivalences). Problems related to comprehensive literal words were the most observed. CONCLUSION: The current method combining translation with back translation is not sufficient and must be used with, a pre-test and a review committee.