RESUMENEste artículo muestra los aspectos más importantes relacionados con la validación de escalas aplicadas en investigación en salud e ilustra los pasos de este proceso. En el artículo se discuten los conceptos relacionados con la selección de los ítems, traducción, validez, confiabilidad y utilidad.Palabras Claves: Estudios de validación, reproducibilidad de resultados (fuente: DeCS, BIREME). ABSTRACT Validating scales used for measuring factors in medicineThis article shows the mayor issues related with validation of scales applied in health research and illustrates the steps of this process. Concepts related with the selection of items, translation, validity, reliability and usefulness are discussed in this article.Key Words: Validation studies, reproducibility of Results (source: DeCS, BIREME). E l método científico, en su positivismo lógico, se ve avocado a un reduccionismo necesario pero a veces limitante, que supone colapsar conceptos anatómicos, fisiológicos, fisiopatológicos, nosológicos, psicológicos, antropológicos o sociales, en variables que, como sus representantes, deben ser medidas (1). El establecer la frecuencia de un evento relacionado con la salud, o determinar los factores que con él se asocian, implica una adecuada selección de los seres humanos que serán objeto del estudio y una cuidadosa medición de características que denominamos variables (2). Los aciertos o errores en el proceso de medición de estas variables pueden afectar la validez de los datos: esto quiere decir que se puede perder la correspondencia entre el resultado de la medición y la realidad del fenó 302

BackgroundInfection with multiple types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the main risk factors associated with the development of cervical lesions. In this study, cervical samples collected from 1,810 women with diverse sociocultural backgrounds, who attended to their cervical screening program in different geographical regions of Colombia, were examined for the presence of cervical lesions and HPV by Papanicolau testing and DNA PCR detection, respectively.Principal FindingsThe negative binomial distribution model used in this study showed differences between the observed and expected values within some risk factor categories analyzed. Particularly in the case of single infection and coinfection with more than 4 HPV types, observed frequencies were smaller than expected, while the number of women infected with 2 to 4 viral types were higher than expected. Data analysis according to a negative binomial regression showed an increase in the risk of acquiring more HPV types in women who were of indigenous ethnicity (+37.8%), while this risk decreased in women who had given birth more than 4 times (−31.1%), or were of mestizo (−24.6%) or black (−40.9%) ethnicity.ConclusionsAccording to a theoretical probability distribution, the observed number of women having either a single infection or more than 4 viral types was smaller than expected, while for those infected with 2–4 HPV types it was larger than expected. Taking into account that this study showed a higher HPV coinfection rate in the indigenous ethnicity, the role of underlying factors should be assessed in detail in future studies.

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