Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of Speech-Language Pathology assessment instruments to Brazilian Portuguese: guidelines analysis

Abstract

In Brazil, there is a significant lack of formal and objective instruments that are commercially available in Portuguese for the assessment and diagnosis in the Speech-Language Pathology area. Some researchers have tried to ease this problem by translating instruments available in other languages. Historically, the adaptation of instruments developed in another culture and/or language was limited to the simple translation of the original or the literal comparison of this translation with a back translation. However, researchers from different thematic areas have been suggesting that semantic evaluation is only one of the necessary steps in the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation. Hence, some sets of standardized instructions and specific guidelines for translation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments are proposed in the literature. This study aims to present the recurrent guidelines in studies that perform the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments. To do so, we selected 27 scientific articles indexed in national and international databases describing this process in their methodologies. The eight verified guidelines - as proposed by Guillemin, Bombardier, and Beaton (1993) and by the Scientific Advisory Committee of Medical Outcomes Trust (2002) - are considered quite comprehensive, reflecting the great concern of most researchers when translating and adapting Speech-Language Pathology assessment instruments for use in Brazil.