The German original AMS scale
was first translated and culturally adapted into English, showing cross-cultural equivalence [ 7 ].Most but not all of the translations were performed in congruence with international methodological recommendations for linguistic & cultural adaptation of HRQoL measures [ 8 ],
[ 9 ], [ 10 ], [ 11 ], [ 12 ], [ 13 ], [ 14 ] using mostly the English version as source language to ensure cross-cultural equivalence among countries [ 8 ]. Six steps of the translation process are recommended: Forward translations (at least two independent translators), a consensus meeting with the coordinator of the translation, a check by a bilingual expert in the application field of the scale to evaluate the scientific correctness of the wording, a backward translation, a consensus meeting among the translators with the coordinator, and finally a pretest with a few persons the test is designed for (also called cognitive debriefing).Recently, the language versions available were published [ 15 ] . In this review the results of an inquiry among some of the authors of different existing language versions of the AMS were discussed. It was demonstrated that most of the translations followed the recommended process, but a few did not for various reasons such as lack of financial sources, no need of international compatibility of results obtained with the scale or others. Specific reasons were not inquired. However, potential users of these incompletely adapted scales (Flemish, Croatian, Russian language) should be encouraged to complete the translation and assistance is offered - if needed.
For completeness, all AMS versions are attached as additional files in PDF-format (Adobe Acrobat). The majority of language versions followed the same, i.e. internationally recommended, complex methodology of linguistic and cultural adaptation. For this reason, we can assume that they have linguistic and cultural equivalence, although different groups did the translation work. We will further try to facilitate this process in other languages if requested.
Altogether, the AMS scale was in 31 different languages translated, but not all are accessible from the following table (click to get a link to version of interest). Some of the languages listed in the next table are not yet available, the translation has not completed, or the research group will present only after publication.
Latvian version Brazilian version (not available here) Lebanon-Arabic version Bulgarian version Malay version (not available here) Chilean version (not available here) Mongolian version Chinese version (not available here) Nigerian (Yoruba) version Croatian version Norwegian version Danish version Polish version Dutch version Portuguese version English version Romanian version Finnish version Russian version French version Slovenian version German version Spanish version Hungarian version Swedish version Indonesian version Taiwanese version Italian version Thai version Japanese version Turkish version Korean version
It should be stressed that persons who are interested in applying the AMS scale in their research can download the appropriate language version for free and use it without any formal permission from the copyright holder.
However, it would be appreciated from the developer of the scale to keep an overview about all persons/groups using the scale and for what reason to support further development (validation) of the scale.
Therefore, information should be sent to the developer and copyright holder of this scale (see contact). In return, all information on the scale that became known in between will be made available in this official website.
[7]. Heinemann LAJ, Saad F, Thiele K, Wood-Dauphinee S. The Aging Males' Symptoms (AMS) rating scale. Cultural and linguistic validation into English. The Aging Male 2001 ; 3:14-22.
[8]. Herdman M, Fox-Rushby J, Badia X. A model of equivalence in the cultural adaptation of HRQOL instruments: the universalist approach. Qual Life Res 1998; 7: 323-35.
[9]. Anonymous. Trust introduces new translation criteria. Medical Outcomes Trust Bulletin 1997; 5:2-4.
[10]. Aaronson NK, Acquadro C, Alonso J et al. International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) project. Quality of Life Research 1992;1:349-351.
[11]. Acquadro C, Jambon B, Ellis D, Marquis P. Languages and translation issues. Quality of Life and Pharmaco-Econonomics in Clinical Trials, B. Spilker Editor. 2nd Edition;1996: 575-585.
[12]. Brislin RW. Backtranslation for Cross-Cultural Research. J Cross-Cultural Psychology 1970;1(3):185-216.
[13]. Brislin RW. Questionnaire Working and Translation. In: Lonner WJ, Thorndike RM (Eds). Cultural Research Methods. John Wiley, New York, 1973:32-58.
[14]. Brislin RW. The Working and Translation of Research Instruments. In: Lonner WJ, Berry JW (Eds). Field Methods in Cross-Cultural Research. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1968:137-164.
[15]. Heinemann LAJ, Saad F, Zimmermann T, Novak A, Myon E, Badia X, Potthoff P, T'Sjoen G, Pöllänen P, Goncharow NP, Kim S, Giroudet C. The Aging Males' Symptoms (AMS) scale: update and compilation of international versions. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003;1:15 (1 May 2003).
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