Japanese translation of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) as social care related quality of life measures

focus on the linguistic validation

Abstract

Objectives: This study analyzed the linguistic validity of the Japanese version of the Four-Level Self-Completion Questionnaire (SCT4), which is part of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) as social care related quality of life measures. Through the validation, we intended to provide an appropriate outcome measurement to optimize the management of the long-term care system in Japan. The translation processes were conducted according to the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) between July 2016 and December 2017.

Methods: The following processes were performed: translation, back-translation, and an expert meeting by the developer, the Japanese research team and the translation company to produce a pre-final version; the pre-testing process using cognitive debriefing with potential clients living in two municipalities in Japan; confirmation of the linguistic validity to finalize the Japanese version after adjustment from a clinical perspective. Cognitive debriefing is a structured interview process in which a trained interviewer debriefs subjects on a translation to confirm item comprehension and cultural appropriateness.

Results: There were linguistic issues found in three question items regarding control over daily life and dignity needed further discussion as some words and sentences were difficult to paraphrase because those are not commonly used in daily conversation. To overcome the issues that emerged in the three question items, the Japanese team proposed words and sentences based on daily conversation. After intensive discussion with the developers, the final version was approved.

Conclusion: The final Japanese version that has linguistic validity was established. We confirmed the importance of obtaining direct feedback from potential users to support the linguistic validity of the Japanese version. The ‘control’ and ‘dignity’ items need careful translations based on the words and sentences commonly used in daily conversation in the target language. Future issue is a statistical analysis to verify the Japanese version of the measurement, as well as collaboration with municipalities or/and service providers for practical use of the measurement.