Trends in translation requests and arising issues regarding cultural adaptation

Abstract

Quality of life has become an important end point in clinical trials and academic studies. The questionnaires developed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group are widely used to measure quality of life in cancer patients. The expanding geographical coverage of current studies and trials implies a continuous rise in requests for new language versions of the questionnaires. Together with normal linguistic problems in translation, cultural differences come into play, especially in translations into non-European languages. Two types of such problems can be differentiated: first, specific issues related to culturally dependent activities or phenomena; second, topical issues related to taboos. These translation challenges have to be carefully addressed to ensure the equivalence and validity of the final questionnaires.

Keywords::

• culture
• patient-reported outcomes
• quality of life
• questionnaires
• translations

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This publication was supported by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group and by grant number 2U10 CA011488-41 from the National Cancer Institute (MD, USA) and by Fonds Cancer (FOCA) from Belgium. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Cancer Institute. Andrew 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.