The Spanish Translation and Adaptation of the Uniform Data Set of the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Centers

Researchers from Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADCs) across the United States with expertise in the assessment of Spanish-speaking elderly collaborated to create the official Spanish version of measures in the Uniform Data Set of the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Center Program. The present article describes this project, whose primary goal was to create Spanish instruments with cultural and linguistic equivalence to the English versions. The resulting Spanish versions make provisions for variations among Spanish-speaking groups in the United States of different nationalities, socio-cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. A consensus-based translation and adaptation approach was used, and guiding principles and specific components of this process are summarized. The Spanish translation and adaptation of the Uniform Data Set measures became available online to ADCs in April 2007. Its creation is important, as the resulting effort provides standardized measures for the collection of cross-sectional and longitudinal data on a large cohort of Spanish-speaking elders across the country and facilitates collaborative research among ADCs.