Brazilian version of the Pediatric Functional Status Scale: translation and cross-cultural adaptation

OBJECTIVE: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Functional Status Scale for hospitalized children into Brazilian Portuguese. METHODS: A methodological study of the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Functional Status Scale was conducted, according to the stages of translation, synthesis of translations, back-translation, synthesis of back-translations, expert committee analysis and pre-test with a sample of the target population. During the evaluation by the committee of experts, semantic, content and item analyses were performed. RESULTS: The semantic, idiomatic, cultural and conceptual equivalences between the translated version and the original version were obtained, resulting in the Brazilian version of the Functional Status Scale. After the analysis by the expert committee, there were no problems regarding the cultural or conceptual equivalences because the items were pertinent to the Brazilian culture and few terms were modified. In the pre-test stage, the scale was applied by two evaluators to a sample of 25 children. Clarity and ease in answering the scale items were observed. Good inter-observer reliability was obtained, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.85 (0.59 - 0.95). CONCLUSIONS: The Functional Status Scale for pediatric use was translated and culturally adapted into Portuguese spoken in Brazil. The translated items were pertinent to the Brazilian culture and evaluated the dimensions proposed by the original instrument. Validation studies of this instrument are suggested to make it feasible for use in different regions of Brazil.