Translation, Adaptation, Validation and Evaluation for use in Brazil of a British Inventory to Assist in the Choice of Medical Specialty
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to translate, validate and evaluate a British specialty choice inventory. This tool processes the answers to 130 items and returns a 59-medical specialty ranking, in decreasing order of recommendation, based on the candidate’s profile adjustments to specialty characteristics. The top 10 and the bottom 10 recommendations are considered positive and negative ones, respectively. Translation and semantic adaptation followed the standard procedures described in the specialized literature, and resulted in a Brazilian Portuguese version named SCIB (Specialty Choice Inventory – Brasil). The best version of each translated item was chosen. SCIB was then applied to 120 Brazilian physicians (85 specialists and 35 residents) representing 38 different specialties. SCIB was also applied to 79 senior medical students. Participant physicians indicated in a structured questionnaire two specialties they could have chosen apart from the current one, as well as three specialties they would unlikely choose. SCIB was regarded as adequate or very adequate to the Brazilian conditions by 85.8% (103/120) of the physicians and 73.4% (58/79) of the students. Among the latter, 60.8% (48/79) regarded the inventory useful or very useful. For the physicians, SCIB positive recommendations included their current specialty in 67.5% (81/120) of the cases, and any of the specialties they could have chosen in 72.5% (87/120) of the cases. SCIB negative recommendations included any of the specialties that participants would unlikely choose in 87.5% (105/120) of the cases. The translation and adaptation procedures provided data for SCIB validation concerning the face, content and semantic aspects. Answers from the 120 physicians and data from a test-retest study involving 40 participants showed that SCIB has satisfactory levels of homogeneity, internal consistency and reproducibility. In conclusion, translation and adaptation for use in Brazil of the Sci59, a British inventory for assisting medical specialty choice, was successful and resulted in the, SCIB, a tool whose performance was very satisfactory. SCIB can thus be seen as a promising tool for assisting medical specialty choice, as well as for research in this field.
