Linguistic challenges in the translation of British and US health questionnaires

The present article examines linguistic aspects of the translations of North American and English health care questionnaires into Spanish. Such instruments are increasingly used in clinical trials to determine the impact of medical intervention or treatment, and by public health researchers to assess the outcome of health care services. We will be discussing some examples of different health patient scales which have had or still have some problems regarding their translations into Spanish after their linguistic validation process. We are analysing some linguistic aspects on the lexical, semantic, and morphosyntactic levels of the sentence, such as the translation of polysemic words, colloquial expressions, word order, lexical repetition, level of formality, lexical register, false friends, the lexical and syntactical conciseness, multiple-choice gradation, and finally the question on abbreviations. All these issues have to be observed and taken into account when translating a questionnaire. With a few exceptions, all the instruments so far developed are in the English language and are intended for use in English-speaking countries. Therefore, health status measures developed for use in one country cannot be translated directly into another language without contextual adaptation. The article concludes that Spanish translated questionnaires still present deficiencies to be corrected. Further research into linguistic aspects of their translation needs therefore to be undertaken so that accurate equivalence is reached between the source questionnaires and their target versions.En este trabajo vemos ejemplos de diversos cuestionarios de salud británicos y estadounidenses destinados a pacientes que, en su traducción al español, han planteado o siguen planteando problemas lingüísticos pese a estar validados mediante un proceso de traducción exigente y un estudio piloto. Nos referimos a cuestiones en los planos léxico-semántico y morfosintáctico del nivel oracional del lenguaje, tales como la traducción de palabras polisémicas, las expresiones coloquiales, el orden en la secuenciación de términos, la repetición léxica, el grado de formalidad, el registro léxico de cada país, los falsos amigos, la concisión léxico-sintáctica de la lengua inglesa, la gradación de las opciones de respuesta y, por último, la reducción léxica en los nombres de los cuestionarios. Todas estas son cuestiones que hay que observar y tener en cuenta a la hora de traducir cuestionarios que, en su mayoría, se han desarrollado en inglés para su uso en lengua inglesa. Nuestra labor es la de traducirlos y adaptarlos a nuestro contexto de la forma más adecuada posible. Los cuestionarios examinados presentan todavía insuficiencias que deberían subsanarse en la adaptación. Las cuestiones lingüísticas deberían analizarse más cuidadosamente a fin de que no haya diferencias entre el cuestionario original y la versión traducida

Translation of the WHO quality of life scale: the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire

The goals of this article are to summarise the problems and solutions found in translating a very well-known health-related quality of life questionnaire from English into Spanish. From a functional approach, we have analysed and compared with the original the translation of the items of the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument, in its shortened version, the WHOQOL-BREF, which has followed a common international protocol based on back-translation techniques in which a review process by monolingual and bilingual groups takes place to ensure its equivalence. The article finds that the Spanish translated questionnaire still has a number of deficiencies that need correcting, so mainly linguistic but also sociocultural and visual questions have to be studied more carefully.El objetivo del artículo es presentar los problemas y soluciones encontrados al traducir del inglés al español uno de los cuestionarios canónicos de salud y calidad de vida más utilizados en todo el mundo, la escala de calidad de vida de la OMS. Se analizan y comparan con su original las traducciones del cuestionario World Health Organization Quality of Life en su versión abreviada (WHOQOL-BREF), desde un enfoque funcional. Las traducciones han seguido un protocolo común internacional, basado en el método de traducción-retrotraducción. Para asegurar la equivalencia, el cuestionario ha sido revisado por traductores bilingües españoles y anglosajones, y sometido al control de un grupo de individuos monolingües. En el cuestionario examinado se han señalado deficiencias, errores y pérdidas principalmente lingüísticas, aunque también socioculturales y visuales, que habría que subsanar

La voz de las mujeres: desafíos y particularidades de la perspectiva de género en contextos biosanitarios

La publicación es parte del proyecto neotermed, financiado por la Consellería de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital de la Comunidad Valenciana en la convocatoria aico 2021, dirigido por M. Isabel Santamaría Pérez y Carmen Marimón Llorca (ref.: ciaico/2021/074

Spanish adaptation of the perinatal grief intensity scale

Aims/Background: Assessing the intensity of perinatal grief is very important for identifying the more complex cases in mothers and fathers. Despite this, there are few assessment tools available. The aim of this study was to analyse the psychometric properties (factorial structure, reliability, and validity) of the Spanish version of the Perinatal Grief Intensity Scale (PGIS). Design/Methods: An online survey was completed by 291 mothers and fathers who had suffered perinatal loss in the previous six years. Results: The results showed adequate fit indexes for the three-factor model of the PGIS: reality, confront others, and congruence. Reliability values for the overall scale and subscales were adequate. Finally, with regard to validity, significant (p < .05) and positive relationships were found with levels of complicated grief, event centrality, guilt, anxiety, and depression. There were also differences depending on whether participants exhibited high or low levels of complicated grief, and on the number of weeks of pregnancy at the time of the loss. Conclusion: In conclusion, the Spanish adaptation of the PGIS has adequate reliability and validity scores and a factorial structure consistent with the original version.This research was funded by Program Redes-I 3CE for Research in University Teaching of the Institute of Education Science (Vice-Chancellorship of Quality and Educational Innovation) of the University of Alicante, edition 2020-21 (Ref. 5537)

Validación lingüística de la versión española del Good Death Inventory

This article outlines the linguistic validation of the Good Death Inventory (GDI) translation into Spanish, used to assess the quality of care at the end of a patient’s life. A standardized procedure was followed to do this that included a blind back translation process and an exploration of the conceptual adaptation of the scale into Spanish through six cognitive interviews with relatives of deceased patients. The translation of the scale (54 items) showed indicators of low difficulty. Six items required syntactic changes, 12 required semantic changes and only one item required syntactic and semantic changes. All items were considered applicable to the Spanish context. The degree of difficulty was higher for the back translation than for the translation itself. The cognitive interviews highlighted the difficulty of choosing between seven answers, especially those that were formulated as negative. Five items were difficult to understand. The Spanish version of the GDI has been adapted well to the Spanish context.Este artículo presenta la validación lingüística española del Good Death Inventory (GDI), para la evaluación de la calidad de los cuidados al final de la vida. Se llevó a cabo un proceso estandarizado de traducción y retrotraducción ciegas y se examinó la adecuación conceptual de la escala al contexto español a través de seis entrevistas cognitivas a familiares de pacientes fallecidos. La traducción de la escala (54 ítems) mostró indicadores de dificultad bajos. Seis ítems precisaron cambios sintácticos, 12 cambios semánticos y sólo un ítem precisó cambios sintácticos y semánticos. Todos los ítems fueron considerados aplicables al contexto español. El grado de dificultad de la retrotraducción fue superior al de la traducción. Las entrevistas cognitivas mostraron dificultad para discriminar entre las siete alternativas de respuesta, especialmente en los ítems formulados en negativo. Cinco ítems presentaron dificultades de comprensión. La versión española del GDI presenta una buena adecuación al contexto español

The Spanish version of the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ-E): reliability and validity assessment

Background: The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was originally designed to study women’s perceptions of labour and birth. The main objective of our study was to adapt the CEQ to the Spanish context and determine its psychometric properties. This would provide an opportunity to evaluate women’s experiences in order to improve evidence in the Spanish context as recommended by national guidelines. Methods: The CEQ was translated into Spanish using a standard forward and back translation method (CEQ-E). A convenience sample of 364 women was recruited from 3 Spanish hospitals; all participants were able to read and write in Spanish. Mothers with high risk pregnancies or preterm deliveries were excluded from the study. A self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic variables was completed by participants before discharge. Data on childbirth variables were obtained from maternity records. Between 1 and 3 months postpartum a postal CEQ-E questionnaire was sent. The CEQ-E structure was examined by a confirmatory factor analysis of polychoric correlations using a diagonally weighted least squares estimator. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was conducted by testing differences in CEQ-E scores between known-groups (to differ on key variables). Results: 226 (62.1%) of the recruited participants completed the postal questionnaire. The CEQ-E factor structure was similar to the original one. The Spanish version showed fit statistics in line with standard recommendations: CFI = 0.97; NNFI = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.066; SRMS = 0.077. The internal consistency reliability of the CEQ-E was good for the overall scale (0.88) and for all subscales (0.80, 0.90, 0.76, 0.68 for “own capacity”, “professional support”, “perceived safety” and “participation”, respectively) and similar to the original version. Women with a labour duration ≤ 12 h, women with a labour not induced, women with a normal birth and multiparous women showed higher overall CEQ-E scores and “perceived safety” subscale scores. Women with a labour duration ≤ 12 h and those with previous experience of labour obtained higher scores for the “own capacity” and “participation” subscales. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the CEQ-E can be considered a valid and reliable measure of women’s perceptions of labour and birth in Spain.This work has been funded by the Project PI11/02124 and PI14/01549 within the Government R&D&I plan 2013–2016 and co-funded by ISCIII General Sub-Directorate for Evaluation and Promotion of research the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) "A way to make Europe"

Red docente para el seguimiento de las Prácticas Externas. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

La presente memoria es el resultado del trabajo realizado durante el curso académico 2013-2014 por la Red docente para el seguimiento de las Prácticas Externas en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras en el marco del Proyecto «Redes de Investigación en docencia universitaria». Esta Red ha contado con la colaboración de los diferentes tutores académicos de las diez Titulaciones de nuestra Facultad: Estudios Ingleses, Filología Catalana, Español: Lengua y Literaturas, Estudios Franceses, Estudios Árabes e Islámicos, Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Historia, Humanidades, Traducción e Interpretación y Turismo; así como con la inestimable labor de la Gestora de Prácticas en Empresa: Ana Belén Martín-Portugués Giménez de los Galanes. El propósito fundamental de la Red ha sido efectuar un seguimiento de las prácticas curriculares tras su primer año de funcionamiento como asignatura en los distintos Grados. Para ello, no solo se ha reflexionado acerca de los posibles problemas que han ido surgiendo y de las posibles propuestas de mejora, sino también se ha llevado a cabo una revisión de la documentación existente para el seguimiento de las prácticas y para su evaluación, con el fin de que se adecue a lo que se nos exigirá en la acreditación de los Títulos

La Validación Lingüística en los Principales Cuestionarios de Salud y Calidad de Vida

The goals of this article are to summarize the problems and solutions found in translating seven Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) questionnaires from English into Spanish which have used a common international protocol based on back-translation techniques. The methodology used is based on the linguistic validation model including both the linguistic and the sociopragmatic equivalence. Five questionnaires from seven have obtained good results, not so two of them. Considering linguistic questions, there were more problems than good solutions on the lexical-semantic level. With respect to the sociocultural questions, there were more solutions than problems. The Spanish translated questionnaires still present deficiencies to be corrected, so both linguistic and sociocultural questions have to be studied more carefully in order not to allow differences between the translated versions and the source questionnaires

Sociocultural issues in the translation of US health questionnaires

La mayor parte de los cuestionarios de salud se han desarrollado en inglés para su uso en países de lengua inglesa. De este modo, en el proceso de traducción y adaptación de instrumentos de salud a otros países se deben considerar no solo la lengua a la que se traduce, sino también la cultura y la población implicadas. Al acometer esta tarea, hemos de tener en cuenta que no podemos efectuar una simple traducción literal, sino que debemos realizar una completa adaptación cultural. Esta adaptación pondrá de relieve las diferencias entre el cuestionario original y la versión traducida.Most health questionnaires have been written in English for use in English-speaking countries. To translate and adapt these health instruments for use in other countries, we must consider not only the target language but also the target culture and population. When tackling this task, we must remember that we cannot simply translate literally; we must also undertake a complete cultural adaptation of the material. This adaptation will throw into relief the differences between the original questionnaire and the translated version

Visual and formal aspects of questionnaires on health and quality of life

Una falta de atención en el formato de los cuestionarios de salud y calidad de vida ocasiona que muchas preguntas no se contesten porque no se pueden leer bien. Se hace aquí una reflexión sobre tales aspectos visuales, analizando siete de los cuestionarios genéricos en lengua inglesa más utilizados en el mundo y comparándolos, a su vez, con sus traducciones al español. Los resultados que se obtienen subrayan la idea de la importancia que tiene la presentación del cuestionario para conseguir la máxima información.Lack of attention to the format of questionnaires on health and quality of life results in many questions going unanswered because they cannot be read easily. Here we reflect on these visual aspects by analyzing seven of the world’s most-used generic English-language questionnaires and comparing them to their Spanish translations. The results of our work highlight the importance of presentation in obtaining the maximum amount of information from a questionnaire