Cross Cultural Adaptation & Psychometric Validation of Research Instruments: a Methodological Review

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 validation study. Method: Search was done in PubMed, PubMed Central & Google Scholar with searching key words ranging date from January 2000 to December 2015. Finally 78 articles were selected for review and through 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 & sample size. Cronbach’s alpha & test-retest reliability was mostly used form of reliability with variations in assessment of validity. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used more for statistical analysis & 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.