Last update:
21-Jan-2019

Healthcare professionals use questionnaires in studies to measure a variety of issues, including burnout, quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression, internet addiction, etc. These questionnaires were usually published in languages other than Greek, and especially in the English language. For use with Greek populations, researchers must first translate into the Greek language and culturally adapt these questionnaires. Statistical methods should then be used to check for reliability and validity of the translated questionnaires. This article describes the translation and cross-cultural adaptation methodology for questionnaires in languages other than Greek, according to the published guidelines. Cross-cultural adaptation includes conceptual, item, semantic and operational equivalences between the questionnaires in languages other than Greek and the translated questionnaires in the Greek language. Cross-cultural adaptation is necessary for conducting cross-cultural comparison, international research, and meta-analysis. Translation into the Greek language and cross-cultural adaptation methodology for a questionnaire covers the title, the introductory text, instructions for the administrators of the questionnaire, instructions for participants, questionnaire items, responses and scoring instructions. Translation into the Greek language and cross-cultural adaptation methodology for a questionnaire includes the following six steps: (a) Procedure preparation, (b) translation of the questionnaire from the language other than Greek into the Greek language (forward translation), (c) translation of the translated questionnaire in Greek back into the source language (backward translation), (d) examination and validation by a committee review, (e) pilot study, and (f ) review and finalization of the translation and cross-cultural adaptation procedures. Finally, researchers should publish in peer-reviewed journals the translation and cross-cultural adaptation methodology for the questionnaire to be administered in the Greek language.

Key words: Cross-cultural adaptation, Pilot study, Questionnaires, Translation.