title: Linguistic validation of translation of the Self-Assessment Goal Achievement (SAGA) questionnaire from English.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A linguistic validation of the Self-Assessment Goal Achievement (SAGA) questionnaire was conducted for 12 European languages, documenting that each translation adequately captures the concepts of the original English-language version of the questionnaire and is readily understood by subjects in the target population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Native-speaking residents of the target countries who reported urinary problems/lower urinary tract problems were asked to review a translation of the SAGA questionnaire, which was harmonized among 12 languages: Danish, Dutch, English (UK), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. During a cognitive debriefing interview, participants were asked to identify any words that were difficult to understand and explain in their own words the meaning of each sentence in the questionnaire. The qualitative analysis was conducted by local linguistic validation teams (original translators, back translator, project manager, interviewer, and survey research expert).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Translations of the SAGA questionnaire from English to 12 European languages were well understood by the participants with an overall comprehension rate across language of 98.9%. In addition, the translations retained the original meaning of the SAGA items and instructions. Comprehension difficulties were identified, and after review by the translation team, minor changes were made to 7 of the 12 translations to improve clarity and comprehension.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Conceptual, semantic, and cultural equivalence of each translation of the SAGA questionnaire was achieved thus confirming linguistic validation.
authors.affiliation: MAPI Values, 133 Portland St, Boston, MA 02114, USA. lizpiault@gmail.com
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Piault
authors.forename: Sameepa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doshi
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.forename: Çolpan
authors.initials: Ç
authors.lastname: Angün
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Agneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergqvist
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trocio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D032882:Comprehension; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D013997:Time Factors; D014177:Translations