Multilingual translation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) quality of life measurement system.
There is need for multilingual cross-culturally valid quality of life (QOL) instrumentation to assess the QOL endpoint in international oncology clinical trials. We therefore initiated a multilingual translation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) Quality of Life Measurement System (Version 3) into the following languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish. Prior to this project, the FACT Measurement System was available in English, Spanish and Canadian French. The FACT is a self-report instrument which measures multidimensional QOL. The FACT (Version 3) evaluation system uses a 29-49 item compilation of a generic core (29 Likert-type items) and numerous subscales (9-20 items each) which reflect symptoms associated with different diseases, symptom complexes and treatments. The FACT-G (general version) and eight of 18 available cancer-related subscales were translated using an iterative forward-backward translation sequence. After subsequent review by 21 bilingual health professionals, all near final language versions underwent pretesting with a total of 95 patients in the native countries. Available results indicate good overall comprehensibility among native language-speakers. Equivalent foreign language versions of the FACT will permit QOL evaluation of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Bonomi
A E
AE
University of Washington, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle, USA.
Cella
D F
DF
Hahn
E A
EA
Bjordal
K
K
Sperner-Unterweger
B
B
Gangeri
L
L
Bergman
B
B
Willems-Groot
J
J
Hanquet
P
P
Zittoun
R
R
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology*; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012803:Sick Role; D014175:Translating