[Portuguese (Brazil) cross-cultural adaptation of the Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S/EAST) used to identify risk of violence against the elderly].

This article describes the cross-cultural adaptation, for use in Brazil, of the Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S/EAST), used to identify risk of domestic violence against the elderly. Evaluating the conceptual and item equivalences, the article concludes that they are pertinent in the Brazilian context. Semantic equivalence covered the terms' correspondence in referential/denotative meaning and the items' general/connotative correspondence per se. Measurement equivalence was investigated by means of psychometric properties. As with the original instrument in English, the factor analysis revealed three dimensions. Six of the seven items loaded satisfactorily in factor 1 ("situation of potential abuse" scale). Internal consistency proved reasonable, with discreet intra-observer reproducibility. The second factor representing the dimension of "violation of personal rights or direct abuse" showed similar performance. Even so, the study identified an exchange of items between these scales and crossed loads. A third scale that was supposed to encompass the "characteristics of vulnerability" did not show the same performance. The conclusion was that even without demonstrating complete equivalence, the H-S/EAST could already be recommended, at least in part, in the Brazilian context.