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Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of Nepali versions of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Pain Intensity, Pain Interference, Pain Behavior, Depression, and Sleep Disturbance short forms in chronic musculoskeletal pain

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Abstract

Purpose

The Patient-Reported Outcomes Meaurement Information System (PROMIS®) measures have been translated into many languages and have been shown to have strong measurement properties across a wide range of clinical conditions. However, Nepali translations of the PROMIS short forms are not yet available. The aim of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the PROMIS Pain Intensity, Pain Interference, Pain Behavior, Depression, and Sleep Disturbance short forms into Nepali.

Methods

We used the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) translation methodology, which incorporated two forward translations, synthesis of the translations, a back-translation, and three independent reviews, harmonization, cognitive debriefing, revisions, and proof reading. The translation and review teams were fluent in Nepali and English and represented five different countries and four continents. We evaluated the short forms for comprehensibility and relevance (two key aspects of the content validity of an instrument), conducting cognitive debriefing with six adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain, in compliance with recommendations by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). The final version was proofread by two native Nepali speakers before and three new proofreaders after cognitive debriefing.

Results

All five short forms were successfully translated and cross-culturally adapted into Nepali while maintaining equivalence to the source.

Conclusions

The translation and review team, along with a sample from the target population with chronic musculoskeletal pain and the proofreaders considered all five PROMIS short forms relevant and comprehensible. An important next step is to evaluate the measurement properties of these instruments.

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Acknowledgements

SS would like to thank the University of Otago Postgraduate (Doctoral) Publishing Bursary for providing stipend to write this manuscript. The conception of the study was supported by International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Developing Countries Collaborative Research Grant to allow collaboration between SS and MPJ. We would like to thank a translator Bindu Bajracharya, reviewer Mahima Tiwari, and the Language Coordinator for their support during the translation process. We would also like to thank all the translators, reviewers, and the language coordinator for volunteering to translate these instruments into Nepali. Finally, we thank the PHO for waiving the review fees to allow us to complete these translations.

Funding

We did not receive any funding to conduct this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiotherapy, Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Dhulikhel, Nepal

    Saurab Sharma, Riju Maharjan & Soniya Maharjan

  2. Center for Musculoskeletal Outcomes Research, Department of Surgical Sciences, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Saurab Sharma, Anupa Pathak & J. Haxby Abbott

  3. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA

    Helena Correia

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Caroline B. Terwee

  5. Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Sweekriti Sharma

  6. School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Jeevan Sharma

  7. Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Darren Reed

  8. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Mark P. Jensen

Authors
  1. Saurab Sharma
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  2. Helena Correia
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Contributions

SS: Conception, coordination of all translations as the Translation Project Manager, data acquisition, data analysis and interpretation, writing first manuscript draft, revising manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. HC: Conception of the study, review of the translations, and assured high quality of translations on behalf of PROMIS Health Organisation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. AP: Translation of the instruments, interpretation, review of the manuscript, final approval of the manuscript. CBT: Interpretation, review of the manuscript, final approval of the manuscript. JHA: Interpretation, review of the manuscript, final approval of the manuscript. RM: Review of the translations, interpretation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. SwS: Review of the translations, interpretation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. JS: Reconciliation of all translations, interpretation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. SM: Data acquisition, interpretation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. DR: Back-translation, interpretation, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript. MPJ: Conception of the study, review of the translations, interpretation of the results, review of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saurab Sharma.

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All authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Committee of Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, Dhulikhel, Nepal.

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All study participants provided written informed consent to participate in the study.

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Sharma, S., Correia, H., Pathak, A. et al. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of Nepali versions of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Pain Intensity, Pain Interference, Pain Behavior, Depression, and Sleep Disturbance short forms in chronic musculoskeletal pain. Qual Life Res 30, 1215–1224 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02745-6

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