Developing guidelines for the translation and cultural adaptation of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment: scoping review and qualitative synthesis

BACKGROUND: Ethnic minorities in countries such as the UK are at increased risk of dementia or minor cognitive impairment. Despite this, cognitive tests used to provide a timely diagnosis for these conditions demonstrate performance bias in these groups, because of cultural context. They require adaptation that accounts for language and culture beyond translation. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is one such test that has been adapted for multiple cultures. AIMS: We followed previously used methodology for culturally adapting cognitive tests to develop guidelines for translating and culturally adapting the MoCA. METHOD: We conducted a scoping review of publications on different versions of the MoCA. We extracted their translation and cultural adaptation procedures. We also distributed questionnaires to adaptors of the MoCA for data on the procedures they undertook to culturally adapt their respective versions. RESULTS: Our scoping review found 52 publications and highlighted seven steps for translating the MoCA. We received 17 responses from adaptors on their cultural adaptation procedures, with rationale justifying them. We combined data from the scoping review and the adaptors’ feedback to form the guidelines that state how each question of the MoCA has been previously adapted for different cultural contexts and the reasoning behind it. CONCLUSIONS: This paper details our development of cultural adaptation guidelines for the MoCA that future adaptors can use to adapt the MoCA for their own languages or cultures. It also replicates methods previously used and demonstrates how these methods can be used for the cultural adaptation of other cognitive tests.