Heart Attacks, Bloody Noses, and Other “Emotional Problems”: Cultural and Conceptual Issues With the Spanish Translation of Self-Report Emotional Health Items

• Published in: Family & community health Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Flynn, Michael A., Eggerth, Donald E., Jacobson, C. Jeffery, Lyon, Sarah M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc 01-01-2021; Copyright Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Cognition; Emigrants and Immigrants; Female; Health Status Indicators; Humans; Kentucky; Male; Mental Health; Middle Aged; Myocardial Infarction; Nose - pathology; Quality of Life; Reproducibility of Results; Self Report; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Translating; Translations; United States; United States; Kentucky
• ISSN: 0160-6379; 1550-5057
• DOI: 10.1097/FCH.0000000000000279

This article examines how respondents understood items in the Spanish versions of the Short-Form 36 (SF-36v2). Cognitive interviews of the SF-36 were conducted in 2 phases with 46 Spanish speakers living in the United States. Roughly one-third (17/46) of respondents had difficulty understanding the Role Emotional items upon their initial reading, and almost half (21/46) provided examples that were inconsistent with the intended meaning of the items. The findings of this study underscore the importance of conducting cognitive testing to ensure conceptual equivalence of any instrument regardless of how well validated it appears to be.