Is an adolescent with chronic kidney disease ready for the transition to an adult health service: translation and adaptation of questionnaires

Abstract

Introduction. The issue of the readiness of adolescents with chronic kidney disease (CKD) for the transition to the adult service in the Russian healthcare system remains unexplored. One of the reasons of this problem is the lack of Russian tools for evaluating patient transition readiness.The goal of this study is to develop Russian-language questionnaires to evaluate the readiness of adolescents for the transition to an adult health service based on the English-language originals.Materials and methods. A literature search was carried out to identify English questionnaires, as well as recommendations for their translation and adaptation. Development of the Russian versions of the questionnaires included the following major stages: preparation, two forward translations, their reconciliation, adaptation and creation of an intermediate version, back-translation into English, cognitive interviewing of the adolescents, proofreading and approval of the final version by the authors of the original English questionnaires. Cognitive interviewing was performed with 10 adolescents with CKD aged 15–17 years.Results. Four English questionnaires were identified. They were studied and comparatively analysed. Translated versions of these questionnaires into foreign languages were revealed. Two most promising questionnaires for translation into Russian were identified: UNC TRxANSITION Index and STARx. Russian versions of these questionnaires were developed based on the international recommendations. Cognitive interviewing provided additional adaptation and linguistic validation of the translated versions based on the adolescents’ opinions. UNC TRxANSITION Index is a provider-administered questionnaire and includes 32 questions. STARx is a self-report questionnaire and includes 18 questions.Conclusions. Russian versions of questionnaires for evaluating adolescents’ transition readiness are available for use by health professionals and social workers. A further study of their psychometric properties and confirmation of the validity of their results in the context of the Russian healthcare system is required.

Keywords

• adolescent
• transition
• chronic kidney disease
• readiness
• questionnaire
• cultural adaptation
• cognitive interviewing