Translation and Validation of an Instrument for Measuring the Suitability of Health Educational Materials in Taiwan

Abstract

It is essential to provide readily comprehensible health information to the public to increase healthy behaviors and improve outcomes. Researchers in English-speaking countries possess well-developed instruments to evaluate the suitability of health education materials. However, few of these instruments are available for use in Chinese-language environments. This study aimed to translate the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) into Chinese. Researchers used a rigorous translation and testing process to provide a valid instrument to evaluate the suitability of health education materials written in Chinese. The translation process included forward- and back-translations and a test for translation equivalence that evaluated semantic and content equivalence. A panel discussion was held on the discrepancies between the original English and back-translated English versions. The content validity index was calculated to confirm the validity of the SAM Chinese version. Two raters used the Chinese-version SAM to evaluate seven health education handouts. A Cohen's kappa coefficient was calculated to estimate interrater agreement, and Cronbach's alpha assessed the internal consistency of the instrument. Discussions on the differences between the original English and initially translated Chinese versions of the SAM resulted in a final 22-item SAM Chinese version. The content validity index of the final Chinese-language SAM scale was .99, the Cohen's kappa coefficient of agreement was .25, and the Cronbach's alpha value was .91. The SAM Chinese version is a valid and reliable instrument with potential use in evaluating the suitability of health education materials written in Chinese.