Swahili translation and cultural adaptation of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale

IF 1.9 4区医学 Q3 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Journal of Clinical Neuroscience Pub Date : 2025-03-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jocn.2025.111182

Peter Kuria Waweru , Samwel Maina Gatimu , Elijah Yulu , Stella Kibet , Dalphine Ndiema , Adam Mang’ombe , Sarah Shali Matuja , Innocent Kitandu Paul , Matilda K Basinda , Sospeter Berling , Gladness Xavier , Nassiuma Manakhe , Christine Tunkl , Patrick Lyden

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The severity of early neurologic deficits after stroke is the single most important predictor of post-stroke outcomes. Of all stroke severity scales, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is the most widely used. Despite being freely accessible, however, this tool remains underutilized in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) likely due to absence of culturally adapted translations. For this reason, we translated the NIHSS to Swahili in a bid to promote its local use as an initial measure in the standardization of stroke care in the East African region. Swahili remains among the 10 most commonly spoken languages in the world, with over 200 million speakers, mostly centred in East Africa.

Methods

The NIHSS was translated into Swahili by a team of native Swahili speakers composed of two stroke physicians, two speech therapists and one nurse, and three independent translators in collaboration with the tool’s developer. Two Swahili translators performed forward translations of the original document from English to Swahili while a third independent translator performed backward translations to English, which was followed by clinician and cognitive reviews. Afterwards, reviewers from Kenya and Tanzania reviewed the tool for cross-cultural adaptation and international harmonisation. We further reconciled and generated a draft tool that was validated in Kenya and Tanzania.

Results

The NIHSS was translated into Swahili, a process that involved broad modifications of the tool including alterations of images, words and phrases to more locally familiar scenes and items. The results of validation of the Swahili version of the NIHSS in Kenya and Tanzania showed no significant differences with the original tool; with good interrater reliability in most domains.

Conclusions

The result of this process is a Swahili translation of the NIHSS that reflects the original tool. We expect the tool to help advance stroke care in Swahili-speaking regions.

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斯瓦希里语翻译和国家卫生研究院卒中量表的文化适应

脑卒中后早期神经功能缺损的严重程度是预测脑卒中后预后最重要的指标。在所有的中风严重程度量表中，美国国立卫生研究院中风量表（NIHSS）是使用最广泛的。然而，尽管可以免费获取，但由于缺乏适应文化的翻译，该工具在撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）仍未得到充分利用。出于这个原因，我们将NIHSS翻译成斯瓦希里语，以促进其在当地的使用，作为东非地区卒中治疗标准化的初步措施。斯瓦希里语仍然是世界上最常用的10种语言之一，有超过2亿的使用者，主要集中在东非。方法将NIHSS翻译成斯瓦希里语，由两名中风医生、两名语言治疗师和一名护士组成的母语为斯瓦希里语的团队，以及三名独立翻译人员与工具开发人员合作。两名斯瓦希里语翻译人员将原始文件从英语向前翻译为斯瓦希里语，而第三名独立翻译人员将向后翻译为英语，随后进行临床和认知审查。之后，来自肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的审稿人审查了跨文化适应和国际协调的工具。我们进一步协调并产生了一个在肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚得到验证的工具草案。结果NIHSS被翻译成斯瓦希里语，这一过程涉及对该工具的广泛修改，包括将图像、单词和短语更改为更熟悉的当地场景和物品。在肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚对斯瓦希里语版本的NIHSS进行验证的结果显示，与原始工具没有显著差异；在大多数领域具有良好的互连可靠性。该过程的结果是NIHSS的斯瓦希里语翻译反映了原始工具。我们期望该工具能够帮助斯瓦希里语地区提高中风护理水平。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 医学-临床神经学

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

402

审稿时长

40 days

期刊介绍： This International journal, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, publishes articles on clinical neurosurgery and neurology and the related neurosciences such as neuro-pathology, neuro-radiology, neuro-ophthalmology and neuro-physiology. The journal has a broad International perspective, and emphasises the advances occurring in Asia, the Pacific Rim region, Europe and North America. The Journal acts as a focus for publication of major clinical and laboratory research, as well as publishing solicited manuscripts on specific subjects from experts, case reports and other information of interest to clinicians working in the clinical neurosciences.