The process of reconciliation: evaluation of guidelines for translating quality-of-life questionnaires

Abstract

Reconciliation refers to the process through which two or more independent forward translations are merged into one single translation. This critical step in the translation process is difficult to formalize. The purpose of this review is to analyze how reconciliation is specified in leading guidelines for the translation of quality-of-life questionnaires and other patient-reported outcome forms with regard to the number and qualifications of individuals involved, the processes followed, as well as the criteria applied. In general, relatively little attention has been paid to characterizing the process in detail. Based on these findings, we specify criteria to be followed.

Keywords::

• patient-reported outcomes
• PRO
• quality of life
• reconciliation
• translation guidelines

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the constructive comments by our colleagues Carole Moinpour, Katrin Conway and Donald Patrick.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

M Koller is member of the EORTC Quality of Life Group and served as Chairman of its Translation Committee, V Kantzer and M Martin are employed at Health Care Associates, I Mear is employed at MAPI Institute, K Zarzar is employed at TransPerfect, E Greimel is the current Chair of the EORTC Quality of Life Group Translation Committee, A Bottomley, M Arnott and D Kuliś are employed at EORTC and serve as Head of the Quality of Life Department, Translation Officer and Translation Team Leader, respectively. A Bottomley is a senior editor for Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research but has had no involvement in the peer-review process for this article. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

The numbers that denote decision options and criteria are explained in Box 1.

The first example (English–Spanish) presents a full description.