Adaptação transcultural do Parkinson's disease caregiver burden questionnaire

Abstract

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder that manifests through both motor and non-motor symptoms. These changes significantly impact on the individual's functionality, who cannot perform their activities of daily living and typically requires the assistance of a caregiver. Usually a family member, who is unpaid, provide poor assistance, and are under a lot of physical and emotional burden. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the burden of those who give care to individuals with PD. This is the aim of the "Parkinson's Disease Caregiver Burden Questionnaire" (PDCB). To be used in a national context, it must be cross-culturally adapted because it is not currently available in Brazilian Portuguese. Objectives: This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt the PDCB to Brazilian Portuguese and verify its content validity. Materials and Methods: This methodological study followed standardized recommendations to perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the PDCB into Portuguese-Brazil, involving five stages: initial translation, translation synthesis, back-translation, expert committee analysis, and testing of the pre-final version. Content validity was assessed based on clarity/comprehension, importance/relevance and comprehensiveness, using the contente validity index (CVI). Results: During the expert committee meeting, necessary adjustments were made to ensure semantic, idiomatic, cultural, and conceptual equivalence. The pre-final version of the PDCB was administered to ten caregivers of individuals with PD (mean age 54.1±14.8 years, 8 women and 2 men), who reported no difficulties in understanding the questionnaire items. The CVI scores for the three evaluated criteria ranged from 0.9 to 1, indicating strong content validity. Conclusion: The adapted Brazilian Portugues version of the PDCB demonstrated satisfactory semantic, idiomatic, conceptual, and cultural equivalence, establishing its face validity. The CVI results confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire in terms of clarity/comprehension, importance/relevance and comprehensivenes. The PDCB-Brasil is a relevant instrument, easy to apply and understand. The questionnaire is a useful tool for assessing the burden of caregivers of individuals with PD. However, further research is necessary to evaluate other measurement properties of the adapted PDCB-Brazil version.