Research

Measuring disease-specific quality of life in rare populations: a practical approach to cross-cultural translation

Victoria E Price¹ , Robert J Klaassen² , Paula HB Bolton-Maggs³ , John D Grainger⁴ , Christine Curtis⁵ , Cindy Wakefield⁶ , Gustavo Dufort⁷ , Arne Riedlinger⁸ , Christophe Soltner⁹ , Victor S Blanchette^5,6 and Nancy L Young^5,10

¹  Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, IWK Health Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

²  Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada

³  Department of Clinical Hematology, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK

⁴  Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Manchester, UK

⁵  Child Health Evaluative Science, The SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

⁶  Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada

⁷  Pediatric Hemato-Oncology, Centro Hospitalario Pereira Rossell, Montevideo, Uruguay

⁸  Department of Pediatrics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany

⁹  Anesthesiology and Surgical Intensive Care Department, University Hospital of Angers, Angers, France

¹⁰  School of Rural and Northern Health, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:92doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-92

Published:	23 October 2009

Abstract

Background

Disease-specific quality of life (QoL) measures have enhanced the capacity of outcome measures to evaluate subtle changes and differences between groups. However, when the specific disease is rare, the cohort of patients is small and international collaboration is often necessary to accomplish meaningful research. As many of the QoL measures have been developed in North American English, they require translation to ensure their usefulness in a multi-cultural and/or international society. Published guidelines provide formal methods to achieve cross-culturally comparable versions of a QoL tool. However, these guidelines describe a rigorous process that is not always feasible, particularly in rare disease groups. The objective of this manuscript is to describe the process that was developed to achieve accurate cross-cultural translations of a disease-specific QoL measure, to overcome the challenges of a small sample size, i.e. children with a rare disorder.

Procedure

A measurement study was conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany and Uruguay, during which the validated measure was translated into the languages of the respective countries.

Results

This is a report of a modified, child-centric, cross-cultural translation and adaptation process in which culturally appropriate and methodologically valid translations of a disease-specific QoL measure, the Kids' ITP Tools (KIT), were performed in children with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The KIT was translated from North American English into UK English, French, German, and Spanish.

Conclusion

This study was a successful international collaboration. The modified process through which culturally appropriate and methodologically valid translations of QoL measures may be achieved in a pediatric population with a relatively rare disorder is reported.