Translation and validation of the Care Transition Measure into Hebrew and Arabic

OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of the Hebrew and Arabic translations of the complete and shortened versions of the Care Transition Measure (CTM)-a measure of patients' experience of the transition between hospital and community care. DESIGN: Translation of questionnaire's items, evaluation of reliability, construct validity, factor structure and convergent validity. SETTING: An oncology center at a tertiary care facility that serves the entire population of the north part of Israel. PARTICIPANTS: Patients receiving care at the clinics of an oncology treatment center. Main outcome measure Psychometric properties of both the 15-item (complete) and 3-item (shortened) versions of the CTM in Hebrew and Arabic. Reliability established using internal consistency with Cronbach's-alpha. Exploratory factor analysis conducted using Varimax rotation. Convergent validity determined with Pearson correlation and ANOVA tests. RESULTS: Three hundred and eighteen Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking oncology patients completed the questionnaire. Cronbach's-alpha for the questionnaire was 0.94 and 0.90 for the Hebrew and the Arabic versions, respectively. Factor analysis resulted in three factors in each of the translated versions with a cumulative variance of 73.41% and 69.2% in the Hebrew and Arabic versions, respectively. Tests of the convergent validity showed that the measure is correlated with health status and that the shortened and complete versions' ratings are consistent across different patient groups. CONCLUSION: The translated Hebrew and Arabic versions of the questionnaire are reliable and valid instruments to assess patients' transitions across settings in diverse populations.