Creation of a bilingual Spanish-English version of the questionnaire for verifying stroke-free status

Spanish-language versions of standardized questionnaires are important for facilitating inclusion of Hispanic populations in epidemiologic, genetic, and clinical studies. We aimed at producing a culturally adapted Spanish translation of the Questionnaire for Verifying Stroke-free Status (QVSS), an instrument used to screen for cerebrovascular end points and to ensure that subjects serving as controls in studies on stroke are indeed stroke free. Five professional translators and ten bilingual physicians independently translated the English-language version of the QVSS into Spanish. Blinded back-translation confirmed conceptual equivalence of the original Englishlanguage and final Spanish-language versions.