[Questionnaires on the quality of life in other than the Dutch language used in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Medicine): the translation procedure and arguments for the choice of the questionnaire].

OBJECTIVE: To determine how the authors of research published in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Medicine; NTvG) translated the questionnaires that they used in other than the Dutch language and to review the arguments on the basis of which the authors chose the questionnaires used.

DESIGN: Bibliometric study and a survey.

METHOD: All of the authors who had published an article in the NTvG up to and including January 2006 in which a questionnaire was used that was originally not in the Dutch language were approached by means ofa survey. In this survey, they were asked about the translation procedure and the factors that had contributed to the choice of the particular questionnaire.

RESULTS: The authors of 38 articles in which a translated non-Dutch questionnaire had been used returned 31 survey forms (response: 82%). Among the 31 authors, who had used a total of 39 questionnaires, 24 (77%) were aware of the proper translation procedure. Of the 9 authors who had translated the questionnaire themselves, 6 had used the technique of translation and back-translation. In the choice of the questionnaire used, an important factor for many authors (64%) was the use of the questionnaire in previously published comparable research.

CONCLUSION: A large proportion of the authors (77%) was aware of the current guidelines for the translation of questionnaires.