A community-engaged approach to translate a Vaccine Hesitancy Scale into Haitian Creole.

OBJECTIVE: Accurately translated health materials are needed to achieve equity in vaccine uptake among U.S. individuals with non-English language preferences. Verbatim translations may not capture the cultural and linguistic vernacular required to understand vaccine hesitancy. We leveraged a community-engaged approach to translate the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS) into Haitian Creole. METHODS: Following the "WHO Guidelines on Translation and Adaptation of Instruments" and a community-engaged framework, a validated 10-question Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS) underwent forward translation, expert panel review, back translation, and focus group pilot testing. RESULTS: Haitian Creole-speaking translators included two community leaders, one community partner, one study team member, and 13 Haitian, greater Boston-based community members who participated in a focus group to pretest the survey. After four iterations, a linguistic and cultural translation of the VHS was created. CONCLUSION: A community-engaged framework strengthened community partnerships and resulted in a culturally relevant Haitian Creole vaccine hesitancy scale.

Psychometric Properties of the Haitian Creole Brief Religious Coping Scale (RCOPE) with a Sample of Adult Haitians Impacted by the 2010 Earthquake.

The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Haitian Creole version of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE). A total of 256 adult survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti completed the Brief RCOPE and measures of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, resilience, general coping, and posttraumatic growth. The results showed the Brief RCOPE to have excellent internal consistency reliability α = .94 and α = .85 for the positive religious coping and negative religious coping, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis showed construct validity for the Brief RCOPE subscales. The results also showed evidence of convergent validity of the Brief RCOPE in relation to measures of positive spiritual change and religion. Independent t-tests revealed statistically significant gender differences in scores on the positive religious coping subscales as women scored higher than men. These findings suggest that the psychometric properties of the Haitian Creole version of the Brief RCOPE are adequate for the assessment of religious coping with Haitian adults exposed to a natural disaster.

Promoting Shared Decision Making About Birth After Cesarean in Haitian Women.

This was a pilot to develop culturally appropriate group counseling sessions for shared decision making about modes of birth after cesarean for Haitian Creole speakers. The curriculum was created by incorporating information identified by women and their providers in focus groups through the lens of Health Belief Model. Ten women attended a session. There was a 50% increase in women planning to labor after cesarean; nine stated the session gave them confidence to decide about their mode of birth; all were "very satisfied" with the session and would recommend it to others. The session was accepted as a method to improve women's decision making, feasible, effective, and could be integrated to improve shared decision making discussions for other non-English speaking women.