INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The DVSS has been used as an objective instrument to grade voiding dysfunction in children. Since this instrument was originally written in English language and no similar validated questionnaire about this theme exists in Brazil, a cultural adaptation was necessary. The aim of the present study was to translate and adapt culturally the questionnaire entitled Dysfunctional Voiding Symptom Score to Brazilian-Portuguese language.

METHODS: Permission to translate the DVSS into Brazilian Portuguese was obtained from one of the DVSS's authors. The translation of the instrument into Brazilian Portuguese language was done independently by two Brazilians translators, who knew the study's objectives. The two Portuguese versions generated one version and then, it was submitted to back-translation, done by two others translators. Subsequently, it that was submitted to a committee of experts with English language domain. They compared each item of the original instrument and the translated version in relation to semantic/idiomatic equivalences in order to assure the correct translation. A consensus was reached achieving semantic, idiomatic, experiential, and conceptual equivalence. After all suggestions made by the judges, the pre-final version was developed for field testing. A pre-test was carried out and descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample. To verify the content validity of the adapted instrument Cronbach's coefficient alpha and Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were performed.

RESULTS: The team of specialists which analyzed the translations pointed out that there was a correspondence between the items translated. In the pretest phase, the questionnaire was responded by a sample of 40 parents of children with dysfunctional voiding symptoms. Following application of the instrument, the patients were interviewed to evaluate the difficulties found in filling out the questionnaire and to identify any questions or words that were difficult to understand. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated in the test and retest phases. Internal consistency was found to be satisfactory, as confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.76 for the test and 0.77 for the retest. A high degree of stability was found in the test/retest, with an ICC of 0.96 (p<0.001; 95%CI: 0.943-0.972)

CONCLUSIONS: The cross-cultural adaptation process of the Dysfunctional Voiding Symptom Score questionnaire to be used on Brazilian children was successfully completed following internationally accepted methodologies.

Source of Funding: none