Systemic lupus erythematosus symptom checklist cross-cultural adaptation to Brazilian Portuguese language and reliability evaluation.
BACKGROUND
Reliable and sensitive measurements are needed to evaluate quality of life QOL in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus SLE . No lupus-specific questionnaires are available in the Portuguese language.


OBJECTIVE
This study describes the translation cultural adaptation and reliability testing of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Symptom Checklist questionnaire in Portuguese.


METHODS
We evaluated 50 patients with SLE. A protocol was developed for translating and validating the SLE Symptom Checklist in accordance with the proposals in publications report on the methodology for translating questionnaires into foreign languages.


RESULTS
With regard to cross-cultural adaptation some adaptations to people s culture had to be made without endangering the main objective of the questions in the original language. The correlation coefficients for internal consistency intraobserver reproducibility and interobserver reproducibility were 0.874 0.925 and 0.917 respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
This questionnaire was shown to be reliable when applied to patients with SLE. Studies are currently being carried out to demonstrate its validity and sensitivity to changes.
Freire
Eutilia A M
EA
Department of Internal Medicine, Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil. eutilia@terra.com.br
Guimarães
Eugenia
E
Maia
Inês
I
Ciconelli
Rozana M
RM
D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires