title: Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Medication Regimen Complexity Index Adapted to Spanish.
abstract: The most widely used validated instrument to assess the complexity of medication regimens is the Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI).
  
  
  
  This study aimed to translate, adapt, and validate a reliable version of the MRCI adapted to Spanish (MRCI-E).
  
  
  
  The cross-cultural adaptation process consisted of an independent translation by 3 clinical pharmacists and a backtranslation by 2 native English speakers. A reliability analysis was conducted on 20 elderly randomly selected patients. Two clinical pharmacists calculated the MRCI-E from discharge treatments and 2 months later. For the validity analysis, the sample was augmented to 60 patients. Convergent validity was assessed by analyzing the correlation between the number of medications; discriminant validity was stratified by gender; and predictive validity was determined by analyzing the ability to predict readmission and mortality at 3 and 6 months.
  
  
  
  The MRCI-E retained the original structure of 3 sections. The reliability analysis demonstrated an excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.83), and the intraclass correlation coefficient exceeded 0.9 in all cases. The correlation coefficient with the number of medications was 0.883 ( P<0.001). No significant differences were found when stratified by gender (3.6; 95%CI=-2.9 to 10.2; P=0.27). Patients who were readmitted at 3 months had a higher MRCI-E score (10.7; 95%CI=4.4 to 17.2; P=0.001). The differences remained significant in patients readmitted at 6 months, but differences in mortality were not detected.
  
  
  
  The MRCI-E retains the reliability and validity of the original index and provides a suitable tool to assess the complexity of medication regimens in Spanish.
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saez de la Fuente
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Such Diaz
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cañamares-Orbis
authors.affiliation: 2 MA Translation and Interpreting, English Philology, Spain.
authors.forename: Estela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ramila
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Izquierdo-Garcia
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Concepcion
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.affiliation: 1 Infanta Leonor University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ismael
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Escobar-Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010351:Patient Discharge; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010595:Pharmacists; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: aged; cross-cultural comparison; hospital readmission; medication regimen complexity; polypharmacy