BACKGROUND:

In Brazil, there are no instruments available to measure the presence, frequency, severity and distress related to heart failure (HF) symptoms.

Aims:

To adapt the Symptom Status Questionnaire - HF (SSQ-HF) into Brazilian Portuguese and to examine the content validity of the adapted version.

METHODS:

The instrument was translated, back-translated and evaluated by an expert committee for semantic, idiomatic, cultural, and conceptual equivalences. An agreement 80% was considered adequate. The adapted version was evaluated by both an expert committee (n = 9) for clarity, theoretical relevance and practical relevance (acceptable content validity coefficient (CVC): 0.70), and by a patient committee regarding understanding (n = 40).

RESULTS:

The adapted version obtained 100% agreement regarding the equivalences. The total instrument CVC was 0.99. All patients understood the items.

CONCLUSION:

The SSQ-HF-Brazilian version has satisfactory evidence of equivalence and content validity. Additional psychometric tests are deemed to confirm that the instrument can be used in Brazil.