Brazilian version of the Care Transitions Measure: translation and validation

To translate, adapt and evaluate psychometric properties of the complete (15 items) and reduced (three items) versions of the Care Transitions Measure into Brazilian Portuguese.

The Care Transitions Measure assesses the quality of care transitions, from the perspective of patients. As accomplishing effective transitions is a challenge to healthcare systems, the instrument provides an opportunity to assess care transitions and improve quality initiatives.

A three-phased design was used for cross-cultural adaptation, pre-testing and evaluation of psychometric properties of the measurement in a Brazilian hospital. After forward translation, back translation and expert committee review, patients evaluated the instrument in a pre-test. Psychometric testing included face and content validity, reliability, stability and factorial analysis.

Cross-cultural adaptation was completed successfully with a high clarity rate. Internal consistency was good in the 15-item version and was moderate in the three-item version. Test-retest reliability showed good stability of the two versions over time. The three-item version had satisfactory criterion validity. Four factors were extracted for the 15-item measure.

Samples were restricted to a group of patients from one hospital in southern Brazil. Future studies should test the measurement's construct and predictive validity.

The translated version of the Care Transitions Measure has good face and content validity, reliability and stability. It has shown to be a valid measurement for evaluating the quality of care transitions in Brazil.

Results are beneficial for nurses, managers and policy makers for evaluating care transitions and support the need for changes in policies and practices.