Greek translation and cultural adaptation of the scored patient-generated subjective global assessment: A nutritional assessment tool suitable for cancer patients.

Abstract

Patients with cancer frequently present with disease-related malnutrition and functional decline. The scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA©) is a malnutrition screening and assessment tool commonly used in patients with cancer. The aim of the current study was to translate and culturally adapt the original English PG-SGA for the Greek setting, including assessment of comprehensibility, difficulty and content validity in patients and healthcare professionals. Our study was conducted according to the ten steps of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Principles of Good Practice for Translation and Cultural Adaptation. Comprehensibility and difficulty of the Greek translation were assessed in 100 patients and 100 healthcare professionals (HCPs) from Greece. Content validity of the translation was assessed among HCPs. Item and scale indices were calculated for comprehensibility (I-CI; S-CI), difficulty (I-DI; S-DI), and content validity (I-CVI; S-CVI). Patient perceived comprehensibility and difficulty of the PG-SGA were considered to be excellent (S-CI=0.97, S-DI=0.97). HCPs perceived content validity for the patient component was also excellent (S-CVI=0.95). The perceived content validity, comprehensibility and difficulty for the professional component of the PG-SGA, as perceived by the HCPs, was excellent (S-CVI=0.94, S-CI=0.94, S-DI=0.90), with the physical exam being perceived as most difficult (I-DI=0.78-0.92). Our study resulted in the successful translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the original English PG-SGA for the Greek setting. The Greek language version of the PG-SGA is characterized by high comprehensibility, low difficulty, and is considered relevant for use in Greece.