Cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the Voice Symptom Scale: VoiSS.

PURPOSE: To present the cultural equivalence of the Brazilian version of the Voice Symptom Scale - VoiSS.

METHODS: The questionnaire was translated into Portuguese by two Brazilian bilingual speech-language pathologists, who were informed about the purpose of this research. The back translation was performed by a third bilingual Brazilian speech-language pathologist, who was also an English teacher, and had not participated in the previous stage. After the comparison of translations, a final version of the questionnaire was produced and called Escala de Sintomas Vocais--ESV, which was administered to 15 individuals with vocal complaint. The inclusion criterion was the presence of dysphonia, regardless of type or degree. The option "not applicable" was added to each item of the protocol.

RESULTS: During the process of translation and cultural adaptation, no item was changed and/or eliminated from the questions. The ESV kept the same structure as the original British version with 30 questions, 15 regarding the impairment domain (functionality), eight the emotional domain (psychological effect), and seven the physical domain (organic symptoms).

CONCLUSION: The cultural equivalence of the Brazilian version of the VoiSS, entitled ESV, was demonstrated. The ESV validation is currently being concluded.