Translation and cross-cultural adaptation into Portuguese-Brazil of NuHISS, Enlight, and uMARS

Abstract

Background: Easy access to the Internet enables the creation of many online applications. In this sense, questionnaires were developed to evaluate the usability of health area online applications: the National Usability-Focused Health Information System Scale (NuHISS), the Enlight, and the User Version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS). Those scales do not have a Portuguese (Brazil) version which is adequate to Brazil's culture. As a consequence, they can not be properly used in Brazil.

Objective: To translate and cross-cultural adapt the NuHISS, Enlight, and uMARS to Portuguese (Brazil).

Methods: A methodological study involving the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the questionnaires NuHISS, Enlight, and uMARS was conducted following international guidelines recommendations. The questionnaires pass trough an initial translation, translation synthesis, back translation, expert committee, and a pre-final version test.

Results: Thirdy-two health professionals analyzed NuHiss, Enlight, and uMARS translated and cross-cultural adapted Portuguese (Brazil) version. There was conceptual equivalence between the translated and original versions, and no significant adaptations were needed during the translation process. 93.8% of professionals assume that the language is cohesive and 96.9% of them consider that the content is cohesive.

Conclusion: The NuHISS, Enlight, and uMARS were successfully translated and cross-culturally adapted to Portuguese (Brazil) and can be properly applied in Brazil. Brazilian health professionals should use the questionnaires NuHISS, Enlight, and uMARS to evaluate health area applications usability.

Keywords: Cross-cultural Comparison; Health technology; Reproducibility of results; Surveys and questionnaires.