OBJECTIVES Kiswahili (Swahili) is the operative language of 100 million East Africans. Most patient reported outcome (PRO) measures are developed in the Anglo-American literature; however, no disease specific studies have been published on their translation into Kiswahili. This project assessed the 1) psychometric properties, and 2) cross cultural adaptation of disease specific (PRO) measures translated from English to Kiswahili. METHODS A comprehensive literature and web search identified four Kiswahili translated PRO measures for study inclusion. PRO measures were included for evaluation: if there was at least one peer reviewed English publication providing psychometric data, and instrument availability. Psychometric instrument evaluation criteria were based on: conceptual model, practicality (5-15minutes), depth, reliability (internal consistency, test-retest: greater than or equal to .7), validity (convergent and divergent), and responsiveness (Lohr, 2002). Assessment of the procedures used to evaluate conceptual and linguistic equivalence was based on recommendations by ISPOR Taskforce for Translation and Cultural Adaptation (Wild et al, 2005). RESULTS Of the four instruments evaluated: Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP), Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 (PHQ-9), World Health Organization Prevention of Blindness and Deafness Visual Functioning-20 (WHO/PBD VF20) and Hopkins Symptom Check List-25 (HSCL-25), none met all study criteria for psychometric properties or linguistic adaptation procedures. Conceptual model, practicality and internal consistency were met for all scales. In cases where criteria were not met it was predominantly due to missing data, e.g, divergent validity was unavailable for the PROs assessed. CONCLUSIONS Although attempts to provide good practice guidelines on translation of PRO instruments have been made, there is need to reach a consensus on these guidelines. Researchers involved in the cross cultural adaptation of PRO instruments are encouraged to be transparent to enable the complete evaluation and subsequent adoption of the translated scale into clinical practice or clinical trials.