What does linguistic validation of a FACIT measure mean?
A Linguistic validation study focuses on the quality of the translation and whether it was understandable by and relevant to the target population. This differs from a full scale validation in that only preliminary psychometric analysis is done if sufficient data are available. We do not investigate test-retest reliability in this type of validation study nor do we look at change over time. The main purpose is to assess the appropriateness of the translation that was conducted, in terms of equivalence with the English as well as cultural appropriateness. In theory, if the translation process creates an equivalent version of the questionnaire, then the psychometric properties of the original questionnaire should also apply to the translation. Therefore, full scale validation studies are not typically done for translations, although we do check validity and comparability of translations retrospectively when data are available.
