Impact of the Terms "<i>Regular</i>" or "<i>Pasable</i>" as Spanish Translation for "Fair" of the Self-Rated Health Question Among US Latinos: A Randomized Experiment.

Abstract

<i>Objectives.</i> To examine measurement comparability of a Spanish version of self-rated health (SRH) with <i>pasable</i> as an alternative to <i>regular</i> for the response category "fair" in the English version.<i>Methods.</i> We translated "fair" into 2 Spanish versions: <i>regular</i> and <i>pasable</i>. We implemented a split-half experiment in 3 surveys independently conducted from October 2015 to January 2016, from April to November 2016, and from August to November 2017. Within each survey, we randomly assigned Spanish-interviewed Latino respondents to 1 of the 2 SRH versions. The total sample included 3261 Latino and 738 non-Latino White adults in the United States.<i>Results.</i> Spanish-interviewed Latinos reported substantively more favorable health on SRH with <i>pasable</i> than with <i>regular</i>. When <i>pasable</i> instead of <i>regular</i> was used for SRH, we observed a larger difference between respondents reporting positive versus negative SRH on objective health measures, including the frequency of doctor's visits. Furthermore, when we accounted for correlates of health, Latino-White disparities were attenuated with <i>pasable</i>.<i>Conclusions.</i> We recommend using <i>pasable</i> instead of <i>regular</i> for SRH Spanish translations to improve measurement equivalence in cross-lingual and cross-cultural research.