RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Social and cultural differences between countries stress the need for adapting existent instruments for adequately comparing epidemiological results. However, there are controversies in literature on how to carry out this process. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe the process of cultural adaptation and evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese language of the European Drug Addiction Prevention Trial (EU-Dap) questionnaire to identify alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among adolescents. METHODS: The cross-sectional study took place in 16 public schools in three Brazilian cities during the year 2013 in a sample of 2,969 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16. Operating steps involved analysis of qualitative data collected through student's focus group and field notes by interviewers and quantitative data from test-retest evaluation and nonresponse to item. RESULTS: The results revealed moderate reliability for the primary outcomes and high levels of nonresponse, mainly in the 2/3 final questions. Focus group provided high-quality information about misconception for the semantic and structure of the questionnaire. Participatory observation helped researchers to tap into the main difficulties of the application context. CONCLUSIONS: Sociocultural issues related to Brazilian students, the application context, and the structure of the original questionnaire contributed to the unsatisfactory results of the transcultural adaptation process. The results further highlighted the challenge of adapt questionnaires investigating sensitive issues in an age group particularly influenced by educational factors, especially when the countries have different standards of achievement in education.
