Cross-Cultural Validation of the Definition of Multimorbidity in the Bulgarian Language.

Abstract

Multimorbidity is a health issue with growing importance. During the last few decades the populations of most countries in the world have been ageing rapidly. Bulgaria is affected by the issue because of the high prevalence of ageing population in the country with multiple chronic conditions. The AIM of the present study was to validate the translated definition of multimorbidity from English into the Bulgarian language. The present study is part of an international project involving 8 national groups. We performed a forward and backward translation of the original English definition of multimorbidity using a Delphi consensus procedure. The physicians involved accepted the definition with a high percentage of agreement in the first round. The backward translation was accepted by the scientific committee using the Nominal group technique. Some of the GPs provided comments on the linguistic expressions which arose in order to improve understanding in Bulgarian. The remarks were not relevant to the content. The conclusion of the discussion, using a meta-ethnographic approach, was that the differences were acceptable and no further changes were required. A native version of the published English multimorbidity definition has been finalized. This definition is a prerequisite for better management of multimorbidity by clinicians, researchers and policy makers.