[LINGUISTIC VALIDATION OF THE JAPANESE VERSION OF THE FEMALE DECREASED SEXUAL DESIRE SCREENER (DSDS)]

(Purpose) To translate the Female Decreased Sexual Desire Screener (DSDS) into Japanese and perform linguistic validation of the translated DSDS. (Methods) Translation was conducted in the following order: 1) obtaining permission from the original author to create a Japanese version; 2) forward translation; 3) community review; 4) back-translation; and 5) review and approval of the back-translation by the original author. First, permission to create the Japanese version was obtained from the original author by e-mail. The initial translation was done by two urologists, and an additional four urologists then refined and completed the Japanese translation. Linguistic validation was performed as follows. For the community review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 11 participants (6 sexually active women and 5 non-sexually active women), and some wording changes were made based on the input from the participants. A total of 10 different participants were asked to respond to the questionnaire again, and additional modifications were made. The forward translation with modifications was then back-translated and e-mailed to the original author. (Results) In accordance with the original author's comments on the back-translation, further modifications were made to the Japanese version, which was then back-translated again and confirmed and approved by the original author. (Conclusion) After a multi-step review process, the Japanese version of the DSDS was completed with linguistic validation.