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Guimaraes F.S.1, González Seguel F.A.2,3, Zanni J.M.4, Needham D.M.5
1Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Janeiro, Physical Therapy Department, Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 2Universidad del Desarrollo, School of Physical Therapy, Santiago, Chile, 3Centro de Paciente Crítico Clinica INDISA, Kinesiología Intensiva y Terapia Respiratoria, Santiago, Chile, 4Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 5Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Background: Impaired functional status is a common complication of critical illness. Thus, the use of appropriate outcome measures is necessary to examine functional ability in this setting. The physical dimension of functional status is related to the quality and quantity of daily activities that a person can perform with the mobility of the whole body, such as transfers, maintenance of posture and walking, which many authors define as “functional mobility”. One instrument that assesses functional mobility and the level of assistance required by a patient in each activity is the Functional Status Score for the Intensive Care Unit (FSS-ICU). Since this instrument was originally developed in English, a standardized methodology is required to ensure that its application in a target language is equivalent to the source version.
Purpose: The objective of the present study was the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the FSS-ICU in order to promote its use among Chilean Spanish-speaking physical therapists.
Methods: The adaptation process was divided into four steps: two independent translations into Chilean Spanish (forward translation), synthesis of these first Chilean Spanish versions, two independent translations into English (backward translation), synthesis of these back-translation versions, and expert review. The forward translation versions were produced by two bilingual translators who have Chilean Spanish as their mother tongue. Similarly, the backward versions were produced by two bilingual persons, but who have English as their mother tongue. The Expert Review Committee for those project discussed and resolved any ambiguities to derive the forward and backward synthesis, as well as the final FSS-ICU Chilean Spanish version. The Expert Review Committee included two authors of the original FSS-ICU, three researchers who are also rehabilitation professionals, and the translators. Finally, the Chilean Spanish translation was reviewed for semantics, grammar and spelling.
Results: All the steps of the translation and cross-cultural adaptation process were successfully accomplished. The final Chilean Spanish version of FSS-ICU is now available on the website www.improvelto.com.
Conclusion(s): The Chilean Spanish version of the FSS-ICU is a potentially useful instrument to assess functional mobility in critical care patients. Future research is recommended to evaluate its measurement properties in Chile, to complement existing evaluations using data from USA, Australia and Brazil.
Implications: FSS-ICU is a useful and validated functional assessment outcome measure. This work provides a culturally adapted version for use by Chilean Spanish-speakers, minimizing misinterpretation of the original FSS-ICU.
Funding acknowledgements: There was no funding source.
Topic: Critical care
Ethics approval: Not required.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
