Centre for Health-Related Research, School of Healthcare Studies, Bangor University, Fron Heulog, Ffriddoedd Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2EF, UK.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2012 Jun 8;10:64. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-10-64.
A strong consensus exists for a systematic approach to linguistic validation of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and discrete methods for assessing their psychometric properties. Despite the need for robust evidence of the appropriateness of measures, transition from linguistic to psychometric validation is poorly documented or evidenced. This paper demonstrates the importance of linking linguistic and psychometric testing through a purposeful stage which bridges the gap between translation and large-scale validation.
Evidence is drawn from a study to develop a Welsh language version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and investigate its psychometric properties. The BDI-II was translated into Welsh then administered to Welsh-speaking university students (n = 115) and patients with depression (n = 37) concurrent with the English BDI-II, and alongside other established depression and quality of life measures. A Welsh version of the BDI-II was produced that, on administration, showed conceptual equivalence with the original measure; high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90; 0.96); item homogeneity; adequate correlation with the English BDI-II (r = 0.96; 0.94) and additional measures; and a two-factor structure with one overriding dimension. Nevertheless, in the student sample, the Welsh version showed a significantly lower overall mean than the English (p = 0.002); and significant differences in six mean item scores. This prompted a review and refinement of the translated measure.
Exploring potential sources of bias in translated measures represents a critical step in the translation-validation process, which until now has been largely underutilised. This paper offers important findings that inform advanced methods of cross-cultural validation of PROMs.
人们强烈认为应该采用系统的方法对患者报告结局测量（PROM）进行语言验证，并采用离散的方法来评估其心理计量学特性。尽管需要有强有力的证据证明这些测量方法的恰当性，但从语言验证到心理计量学验证的转变在文献中记录甚少或根本没有证据。本文通过一个有针对性的阶段来展示语言和心理计量测试之间的联系，该阶段缩小了翻译和大规模验证之间的差距。
本文的证据来自一项研究，该研究旨在开发威尔士语版贝克抑郁自评量表第二版（BDI-II），并调查其心理计量学特性。BDI-II 被翻译成威尔士语，然后与英语 BDI-II 同时施测于讲威尔士语的大学生（n=115）和抑郁症患者（n=37），并与其他已建立的抑郁和生活质量测量方法一起使用。生成了一个威尔士语版的 BDI-II，在实施过程中，它与原始量表具有概念等效性；具有较高的内部一致性信度（Cronbach's alpha=0.90；0.96）；项目同质性；与英语 BDI-II（r=0.96；0.94）和其他测量方法有足够的相关性；具有两个因素结构，一个主导维度。尽管如此，在学生样本中，威尔士语版的总体平均值明显低于英语版（p=0.002）；而且在 6 个平均项目得分上存在显著差异。这促使对翻译后的测量进行了审查和改进。
探索翻译测量中潜在的偏倚来源是翻译验证过程中的一个关键步骤，而这一过程在很大程度上尚未得到充分利用。本文提供了重要的发现，为 PROM 的跨文化验证的高级方法提供了信息。
