Adaptação transcultural da Vocal Fatigability Scale For Teachers (VFS-T) para o português brasileiro

Abstract

Purpose: To perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the Vocal Fatigability Scale for Teachers (VFS-T) into Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Method: The cross-cultural adaptation procedures followed the recommendations of Beaton et al (2000). The process included five stages: (1) translation into Brazilian Portuguese performed by two speech-language pathologists and a sworn translator, native speakers of BP and fluent in Spanish; (2) synthesis of the translations by consensus; (3) pre-test with 23 elementary, secondary and higher education teachers, who judged the relevance of the items; (4) back-translation performed by a speech-language pathologist and a non-specialist translator; and (5) consensus of the back-translated versions and preparation of the final version by the committee of experts. Results: During the translation stage, adjustments and adaptations were necessary to the title of factor 2 and to all items on the scale for better interpretation. The wording of 15 items and the content of two items were adjusted. In the back-translation, there was disagreement in the sentence structure of 14 items and in the content of 3, which were resolved by the expert committee. In general, the teachers attributed satisfactory levels of importance, clarity and interpretation to most items to compose the scale for investigating vocal fatigability. The items that presented a relevance index of less than 50% were modified by the committee, meeting the equivalence criteria. Conclusion: The cross-cultural adaptation of the VFS-T into Brazilian Portuguese was successful, resulting in the version entitled Escala de Fatigabilidade Vocal em Docentes (EFV-D).