Background: Translation of questionnaires as a versatile data collection tool is of critical importance in the health domain, as they will serve as measures to assess the characteristics of patients. If the questionnaires are translated poorly or the required cross-cultural adaptations are not implemented, the data collected using such tools can be questionable, which consequently leads to faulty medical decisions. This study explored the adaptation practice of Iranian researchers who have translated a questionnaire from English into Persian in the process of questionnaire validation.
Methods: This study was a qualitative content analysis, which examines the main domains in which Iranian researchers make adaptations in the process of questionnaire translation and adaptation. As such, a body of 217 questionnaires related to health and medicine, which had been translated into Persian, underwent a validation process and were published in quality journals, was collected. Following that, the researchers scanned the articles, and any indication of adaptation was recorded. Instances of the questionnaire adaptation reported in the articles were classified based on the type and domain of adaptations.
Results: The findings revealed that about a quarter of the authors did not indicate any adaptations. A majority of them (62%) did not specify the changes made or any other information, such as providing the rationale for the adaptations. Only a total of 15% provided the precise changes made. Moreover, the “language” domain has been the most frequent adaptation made by the researchers, which is the easiest adaptation type, leaving other challenging adaptation domains.
Conclusion: The researchers need to get familiar with more fundamental domains of adaptation and not limit themselves to the language adaptation type. The researchers are also recommended to take advantage of diverse sources of expertise in the process of translation of questionnaires, such as experts in linguistics, psychometrics, cultural informants, etc.