Cross-cultural adaptation and evidence of psychometric validity of the Family Health Scale for Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract:

This study aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Family Health Scale into Brazilian Portuguese and analyze evidence of its psychometric validity. The 32 items on family health were cross-culturally adapted, using the content validity index to calculate semantic, idiomatic, cultural, and conceptual characteristics of the scale and its items. A pre-test to identify evidence of validity was applied to 40 families. At another time, the instrument was applied to 354 families in a Brazilian northeastern city. The index of agreement between the raters ranged from 0.84 for the scale items to 0.98 for the total scale, according to Kendall’s coefficient. According to Cronbach’s alpha, evidence of psychometric validity is adequate. Most families had a moderate degree of health, according to the scale. Therefore, the Brazilian version of the Family Health Scale showed conceptual, semantic, cultural, and operational equivalence with the original items, along with satisfactory psychometric properties for use among the Brazilian population with effectiveness and safety.

Keywords:
Psychometrics; Primary Health Care; Family Health; Validation Study