Cultural Translation and Validation of the Stigmatizing Situations Inventory Brief (SSI-B) into European Portuguese

Introduction: Stigma is a tendency to exclude people’s perceived difference by society. It can be external or discrimination, and internal or self-stigma. There are a variety of tools to assess weight stigma. However, there was a lack of a tool in European Portuguese to assess external stigma. Therefore, the aim of this study was to perform translation, validation and cultural adaptation of the Stigmatizing Situations Inventory Brief (SSI-B) questionnaire into European Portuguese. Methods: Cross sectional study was performed by completion of two questionnaires by patients with obesity followed at a multidisciplinary obesity treatment clinic: SSI-B questionnaire and the validated translated Portuguese version of the Everyday Discrimination Scale. Direct translation followed reviewing, back-translation, comparison, and pilot testing were performed. The retest was done 1 month after the baseline. The following psychometric properties were assessed: convergent validity between SSI-B and the Everyday Discrimination Scale; internal consistency; and reproducibility between test and retest. Results A total of 175 patients were included, with a mean age of 47±11 years old and a mean BMI of 43±6kg/m2. The mean stigma scores were 21±18 on the SSI-B and 9±9 on the Everyday Discrimination Scale. Regarding the psychometric properties, convergent validity yielded a Spearman’s r coefficient of 0.727, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for internal consistency was 0.88 and reproducibility produced a Spearman’s r coefficient of 0.7 and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.699. Conclusion This translation demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties, supporting its future application in clinical practice in Portugal.