Cultural adaptation process of the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Mexican patients with breast cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is a significant public health issue in Mexico. The understanding of how to meet patient's individual needs is essential to guide supportive care and improve quality of life among these patients. One of the most comprehensive tools for needs assessment is the Supportive Care Needs Survey Short Form-34 (SCNS-SF34), its validity and reliability has been robustly established in several languages, but there are no studies focusing on specific cultural features concerning Mexican women diagnosed with BC. Our objective was to describe and analyze the process of cultural adaptation of the SCNS-SF34 in Mexican women with BC through a pilot study. This process was performed following standardized procedures: a forward and backward translation by experts was undertaken in both languages and the translated version was piloted in 21 women with BC diagnosis. The results showed that appropriate adaptation of the SCNS-SF34 required both literal and sociocultural modifications, and highlighted that appropriate adaptation requires rigorous development methodology that takes into account cultural conditions as well as conceptual, linguistic and metric properties.