Use of differential item functioning analysis to assess the equivalence of translations of a questionnaire
Use of differential item functioning analysis to assess the equivalence of translations of a questionnaire
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DOI：
10.1023/a:1023488915557
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发表时间：
2003-06-01
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Sullivan, M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Petersen, MA;Groenvold, M;Sullivan, M
在基于问卷的跨国对比中，准确的翻译是获得有效结果的必要条件。差异项目功能(DIF)分析可以用来检验多项目量表中项目的翻译是否等同于原文。在来自10,815名来自10种欧洲语言的受访者的数据中，我们测试了EORTC QLQ-C30情绪功能量表的九个翻译版本与原始英语版本的DIF。我们使用两种不同的方法并行测试DIF，列联表方法和Logistic回归方法。两种方法得到的DIF结果基本一致。我们在九个译本中的七个中发现了DIF的迹象。至少有两个DIF调查结果似乎反映了翻译中的语言问题。“不完美”的翻译可能会影响跨国比较得出的结论。鉴于译文永远不可能与原文完全相同，我们讨论了如何解释DIF的结果，并讨论了由于混淆、跨文化差异或量表中其他项目的DIF而导致的语言DIF和DIF之间的差异。我们的结论是，DIF测试是验证问卷翻译的一种有用的方法。
In cross-national comparisons based on questionnaires, accurate translations are necessary to obtain valid results. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis can be used to test whether translations of items in multi-item scales are equivalent to the original. In data from 10,815 respondents representing 10 European languages we tested for DIF in the nine translations of the EORTC QLQ-C30 emotional function scale when compared to the original English version. We tested for DIF using two different methods in parallel, a contingency table method and logistic regression. The DIF results obtained with the two methods were similar. We found indications of DIF in seven of the nine translations. At least two of the DIF findings seem to reflect linguistic problems in the translation. 'Imperfect' translations can affect conclusions drawn from cross-national comparisons. Given that translations can never be identical to the original we discuss how findings of DIF can be interpreted and discuss the difference between linguistic DIF and DIF caused by confounding, cross-cultural differences, or DIF in other items in the scale. We conclude that testing for DIF is a useful way to validate questionnaire translations.