Translation, Cross-cultural Adaptation, Reliability, Validity and Responsiveness of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Questionnaire in Stroke Survivors

Cross-cultural adaptation of a subjective questionnaire is required for use in a different country, culture, and/or language. Although the majority of questionnaires were created in English-speaking nations, researchers must nonetheless take into account non-native populations in health studies, particularly when their omission could result in a systematic bias in studies of health care usage (Beaton et al., 2000). For the purpose of translating and culturally adapting, it is crucial to achieve equality between the target and original sources of the questionnaire.

As it relates to the authors' perspective, the Short Form 36 (SF-36) has not yet been translated and cross-culturally adapted to be used in Myanmar. As a result, the features of a Burmese version's reliability and validity among individuals with a history of stroke have not been studied in the previous research work. In addition, the questionnaire should also be tested for its responsiveness to provide clinical meaningful for health care professions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a Burmese version of the SF-36 (SF-36-Burmese) according to translation and cross-cultural adaption guidelines and evaluate its reliability, validity, and responsiveness (i.e., the instrument's capacity to identify changes over time in the construct being assessed) and the minimum clinical important difference (MCID, ie., the smallest change in an outcome that a patient would perceive as clinically meaningful) among stroke survivors.