Dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) is increasingly relevant given the ageing population. Yet measuring or assessing dysphagia is challenging and often costly when exploring instrumental examination. The aim of this study was to translate and validate a patient-reported swallow questionnaire; the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire, from English to the Indian language, Malayalan. In line with the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research Task Force guidelines for translation and cultural adaptation (Wild et al, 2009) three speech and language therapists translated the tool to Malayalan, three others translated it back to English and a linguist evaluated the content. Having piloted the questionnaire for comprehensibility, it was administered with 55 participants with swallowing difficulties on two occasions, and 55 age- and gender-matched controls without swallowing difficulties. Statistical analysis demonstrated both internal and discriminant validity, meaning it was consistent on repeated assessment and discriminated accurately between dysphagia and non-dysphagia symptoms. Translation and cultural adaptation of assessment tools is incredibly valuable, and this study indicates a specific value around translation of tools than have the potential to reduce the need for costly instrumental assessment processes.
Swallowing their words: translating and adapting swallowing questionnaires to other languages
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