TRANSLATION OF CLINICAL AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS INTO FRENCH - THE CERAD EXPERIENCE

The increasing number of international and epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease points to the need for linguistically equivalent t ranslations of measures for identifying the presence, types, and sever ity of dementia in cross-cultural populations. In translating the CERA D (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease) neurops ychological instruments into French, several linguistic issues have em erged such as semantic, phonetic, and word-frequency equivalences. In verbal memory tests, these problems, though minor in appearance, can b e major pitfalls in studies comparing cognitive function in population s differing in language. Description of the translation procedure and examples of problems encountered are presented, with measures taken to resolve them.