Cross-cultural adaptation of the Italian version of the Voice Activity Participation Profile

The Vocal Activity Participation Profile (VAPP), originally developed in English, is a self-assessment tool used to measure individuals' voice activity limitation and participation restriction. Based on the fact that the cultural/linguistic adaptation is an essential step of validating a protocol in another language, the purpose was to linguistically and culturally adapt the VAPP into Italian. The adaptation was performed in accordance to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcomes Trust. The translation was performed by one bilingual speech-language pathologist and by one bilingual interpreter, who knew about the purpose of this project. A bilingual English teacher, who had not participated in the previous step, performed the back translation. A committee composed by three speech-language pathologists specialized in voice and one laryngologist compared the forward and backward translations, to assess for any discrepancies. A final version was produced and called Profilo di Attività e Partecipazione Vocale (PAPV). A "not applicable" option was included to each item and was administered to 17 individuals with voice problems, six males and 11 females, aged between 21 to 55 years. All items were relevant, as no patients chose the "not applicable" option. However, four individuals, who had a lower educational level, did not fully understand the instructions of the opening statement. Therefore, the questionnaire was further reviewed and adjusted to clarify the information. Otherwise, no items were changed and/or deleted. The PAPV kept the same structure as the original version. The cultural equivalence of the Italian VAPP was demonstrated and entitled PAPV, whose validation is currently in process.