Translation and validation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant (FACT-BMT) version 4 quality of life instrument into Arabic language

Abstract

BackgroundFunctional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant (FACT-BMT) has been translated from English into several languages. Currently, there is no validated translation of FACT-BMT in Arabic. Here, we are reporting the first Arabic translation and validation of the FACT-BMT.MethodsThe study was approved by the Institutional Research Advisory Council. The Arabic translation followed the standard Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT.org) translation methodology (with permission). Arabic FACT-BMT (50- items) was statistically validated. Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients method for Inter-scale correlations and Principal Component Analysis for factorial construct validity was used.ResultsOne hundred and eight consecutive relapsed /refractory lymphoma patients who underwent high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant were enrolled. There were 68 males (63%) and 40 females (37%) with a median age of 29 years (range 14–62). After Arabic questionnaire pre-testing (Cronbach’s alpha 0.744), the study included 108 patients. Cronbach’s alpha for the entire FACT-BMT indicated an excellent internal consistency (0.90); range (0.67 to 0.91). Cronbach’s alpha for sub-groups of social (0.78), emotional (0.67) and functional wellbeing was (0.88). Cronbach’s alpha for bone marrow transplant (0.81), FACT-General (0.89), and FACT- Trial Outcome Index (TOI); (0.91) also revealed excellent internal consistency. Patients had high scores in all domains of quality of life, indicating that most patients were leading a normal life. This translation of FACT-BMT in Arabic was reviewed and approved for submission by the FACIT.org.ConclusionsOur data reports the first translated, validated and approved Arabic version of FACT-BMT. This will help large numbers of Arabic speaking patients undergoing stem cell/bone marrow transplantation, across the globe.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12955-018-0861-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of Quality of Life Scales for Arabic-Speaking Adults: A systematic review

“…9, The majority were conducted in the Middle Eastern and North African region, including Jordan (n = 7), Saudi Arabia (n = 4), Egypt (n = 2), Morocco (n = 2), Kuwait (n = 2), Tunisia (n = 2), Lebanon (n = 2), the United Arab Emirates (UAE; n = 2), Sudan (n = 1) and Qatar (n = 1). 9,13,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]37,38 However, two studies were conducted in the Netherlands among samples of Moroccan Arabic-speaking subjects. 15,36 The majority of the studies (n = 21) had translated the QOL scales into modern standard Arabic suitable for use among all Arabic-speaking populations.…”

“…15,36 The majority of the studies (n = 21) had translated the QOL scales into modern standard Arabic suitable for use among all Arabic-speaking populations. 9,13,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]38 However, six had translated the scales into Arabic dialects only suitable for specific populations, including Moroccan Arabic (n = 3), Tunisian Arabic (n = 2) and Egyptian Arabic (n = 1). [14][15][16][17]36,37 All of the studies utilised quantitative research methods, with 20 crosssectional and seven longitudinal surveys.…”

“…9, None of the studies tested all nine psychometric criteria suggested by Terwee et al 11 In terms of content validity, 22 studies had a positive score. 9,[13][14][15][18][19][20][21][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]32,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] For the remaining five studies, no information was available. 16,17,22,31,33 Internal consistency was generally high, with 26 studies scoring positively.…”

“…18,19 The remaining 25 studies did not provide any information concerning this psychometric property. 9,[13][14][15][16][17][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Construct validity was assessed in 22 studies, of which 21 received positive ratings. 9,[13][14][15][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]37,38 Only one study was rated as intermediate for this aspect.…”

“…9, In total, 14 studies reported information regarding translation and cross-cultural adaptation processes. 9,[13][14][15]17,18,[23][24][25][28][29][30]34,38 However, only two studies adopted all five steps recommended by Guillemin et al 9,12,23 A total of nine studies reported four of the steps, without providing any information regarding the re-evaluation of score weightings. 13,14,17,18,[28][29][30]34,38 One study presented a three-step technique (including translation, backtranslation and pre-testing), while another reported only the first two steps.…”