English Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the French New Patient-Reported Outcome Measures of the Multiple Sclerosis Autonomy Scale (MSAS)
Author(s)
Claude Mekies, PhD1, Cecile Donze, PhD2, Geraud Paillot, MSc3, Alexandre Civet, MSc4, David Pau, MSc5, Lucie Brechenmacher, PhD4, Catherine Mouzawak, MSc6, Patrick Vermersch, PhD7, Mikael Cohen, PhD8.
1RAMSAY Clinique des Cèdres, Toulouse, France, 2Hospital saint Philibert, Lille, France, 3Aventure Hustive, Saint Malo, France, 4Roche, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 5Statistician - Data Scientist, Roche, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 6Structure régionale neuro SEP SYNAPSE, Le Vesinet, France, 7Univ Lille, Lille, France, 8CHU Nice Pasteur, Nice, France.
1RAMSAY Clinique des Cèdres, Toulouse, France, 2Hospital saint Philibert, Lille, France, 3Aventure Hustive, Saint Malo, France, 4Roche, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 5Statistician - Data Scientist, Roche, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 6Structure régionale neuro SEP SYNAPSE, Le Vesinet, France, 7Univ Lille, Lille, France, 8CHU Nice Pasteur, Nice, France.
OBJECTIVES: Many MS patients have symptoms that impact on their autonomy, defined as being able to perform the roles that are most important to oneself, with or without help.MSAS is a new questionnaire, developed in French, that aims at evaluating patient autonomy in multiple sclerosis. The objective of this research was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the MSAS in English.
METHODS: The adaptation process was meticulously conducted, adhering to ISPOR guidelines to ensure semantic, conceptual, and idiomatic equivalence with the original French version. The translation process addressed 35 items, included in six steps:
RESULTS: Following the translation from 2 independent linguistic experts and the back translation,17 wording differences led to modifications of the questionnaire: 3 on the questionnaire description, 5 (out of 10) on the dimension labels and 9 (out of 35) items labels.During the qualitative cognitive interviews, patients had no difficulty to understand the questions and these interviews led to modification of 8 items to improve their clarity to finalize the translation.Final proofreading led to 2 minor changes to be consistent with the wording throughout the questionnaire.
CONCLUSIONS: Items were well understood by patients, with some revisions being incorporated after the cognitive interviewing based on feedback from the interviewees.The translated MSAS now have linguistic and cultural equivalence to the original version and have demonstrated face validity.
METHODS: The adaptation process was meticulously conducted, adhering to ISPOR guidelines to ensure semantic, conceptual, and idiomatic equivalence with the original French version. The translation process addressed 35 items, included in six steps:
- Two forward translations by independent linguistic experts were compared, enabling divergent interpretation of ambiguous items in the original;
- Reconciliation of the forward translations into a single forward translationBack translation of the reconciled translation into the source language;
- Review and harmonization of the back translations against the source language;
- Cognitive debriefing of the new translation with patients from the target population;
- Finalize the translation.
RESULTS: Following the translation from 2 independent linguistic experts and the back translation,17 wording differences led to modifications of the questionnaire: 3 on the questionnaire description, 5 (out of 10) on the dimension labels and 9 (out of 35) items labels.During the qualitative cognitive interviews, patients had no difficulty to understand the questions and these interviews led to modification of 8 items to improve their clarity to finalize the translation.Final proofreading led to 2 minor changes to be consistent with the wording throughout the questionnaire.
CONCLUSIONS: Items were well understood by patients, with some revisions being incorporated after the cognitive interviewing based on feedback from the interviewees.The translated MSAS now have linguistic and cultural equivalence to the original version and have demonstrated face validity.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2025-11, ISPOR Europe 2025, Glasgow, Scotland
Value in Health, Volume 28, Issue S2
Code
PCR71
Topic
Patient-Centered Research
Topic Subcategory
Instrument Development, Validation, & Translation
Disease
Neurological Disorders