Symptom Status Questionnaire – Heart Failure – Brazilian Version: cross-cultural adaptation and content validation

Background In Brazil, there are no instruments available to measure the presence, frequency, severity and distress related to heart failure (HF) symptoms. Aims To adapt the Symptom Status Questionnaire - HF (SSQ-HF) into Brazilian Portuguese and to examine the content validity of the adapted version. Methods The instrument was translated, back-translated and evaluated by an expert committee for semantic, idiomatic, cultural, and conceptual equivalences. An agreement ≥80% was considered adequate. The adapted version was evaluated by both an expert committee (n = 9) for clarity, theoretical relevance and practical relevance (acceptable content validity coefficient (CVC): ≥0.70), and by a patient committee regarding understanding (n = 40). Results The adapted version obtained 100% agreement regarding the equivalences. The total instrument CVC was 0.99. All patients understood the items. Conclusion The SSQ-HF-Brazilian version has satisfactory evidence of equivalence and content validity. Additional psychometric tests are deemed to confirm that the instrument can be used in Brazil.