CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF THE INSTRUMENT FUNCTIONAL MOBILITY ASSESSMENT (FMA) FOR USE IN BRAZIL

Introduction: The Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA) is a tool developed in United States of America. It measures the satisfaction of users of mobility devices related to their functionality. In Brazil, there are few... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: The Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA) is a tool developed in United States of America. It measures the satisfaction of users of mobility devices related to their functionality. In Brazil, there are few researches of the influence of assistive technology devices on the participation of users. Objective: to report the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the instrument FMA for use in Brazil. Method: for the cross-cultural adaptation we used two international guidelines. Results: the first translation (English to Brazilian Portuguese) was performed by two independent translators and after an agreement about those versions, was created a final one. After this procedure, the Brazilian version had a back translation by two different translators and this version was sent to the authors of the FMA and also to a Specialist Committee composed by 11 professionals including physical and occupational therapists who analyzed the Brazilian version. A pre-test version was tested with 20 participants, who were interviewed to check if they understood items of the instrument about each sentence and as an outcome had 100% agreement of all items by the participants. The last stage consisted of a report with all the steps developed by the researchers which were sent it to the authors of the instrument. Conclusion: the Brazilian version is available for use, but still the need of studies with validity and confiability of this measure for the Brazilian population.