OBJECTIVES:

Key goals of translating Patient Reported Outcome questionnaires (PROs) are accuracy and comprehensibility; other important considerations are consistent terminology and translation choices within languages. One method to achieve this consistency is to create a single translation for a language, typically called a “worldwide” translation, intended for speakers across multiple countries. The reasons for creating this worldwide translation vary based on the needs of the project. The aim of this study was to quantify which stakeholders (e.g. sponsor, developer, or eCOA vendor) advocated for worldwide translations, and to begin to qualitatively delineate the reasons for those requests.

METHODS:

All worldwide translations produced from January 2010 to June 2017 were categorized according to the stakeholder that requested them and frequencies calculated for each category. A qualitative analysis of a randomly selected 5% of the sample was performed on project documents and communications in order to find common motivations for worldwide translations.

RESULTS:

CONCLUSIONS:

Overall, worldwide translations constituted a small percentage of translation projects. In most cases, worldwide translations are created at the behest of the sponsor due to constraints on costs or time. There are deeper questions as to the underlying procedural distinctions between different worldwide translations that will be the topic of further investigation.