Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of research instruments: A methodological review
S. M. Yasir Arafat, Hafi zur Rahman Chowdhury, M. M. A. Shalahuddin Qusar, M. A. Hafez
Abstract
Background: Psychometrics has a very important role and with the increase in the number of cross-cultural research projects, there is need to adapt the scales to measure the health status. Objective: It was aimed to describe the validation process comprehensively based on recent practices and to overview a practical guideline of the validation study. Materials and Methods: Search was done in PubMed, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar with searching keywords ranging date from January 2000 to December 2015. Finally, 78 articles were selected for review and thorough methodological review was done in accordance with the review objectives. Result: Review revealed that cultural adaptation followed similar steps with few variations. There was huge variation in study design, sampling technique, and sample size. Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability were mostly used forms of reliability with variations in assessment of validity. Exploratory factor analysis was used more for statistical analysis and followed similar criteria with few variations. Conclusion: Cross-cultural measurement of health outcomes is really an important and challenging issue that needs elaborative guideline to take appropriate steps to solve problems.