OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the quality of the adaptation procedures as well as the clinimetric testing of the shoulder disability questionnaires available in Portuguese that has occurred for each adaptation. METHODS: Systematic literature searches on MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCIELO and LILACS were performed to identify relevant studies. Data on the quality of the cross-cultural adaptation procedures and clinimetric testing were extracted. All studies were evaluated according to the current guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation and measurement properties. RESULTS: Seven different questionnaires adapted into Brazilian-Portuguese (DASH, WORC, SPADI, PSS, ASORS, ASES and UCLA) were indentified from eleven studies. Most of the studies performed the cross-cultural adaptation procedures following the recommendations from the guidelines. From a total of seven instruments, two were not tested for any measurement property (PSS and ASES) and two questionnaires (DASH and WORC) were evaluated for almost all of properties. None of the questionnaires were fully tested for their measurement properties. CONCLUSIONS: Although most of the shoulder disability questionnaires have been properly adapted into Brazilian-Portuguese, some of them were either inadequately tested or not tested at all. It is recommended that only tested instruments can be used in clinical practice, as well as in research.
questionnaire; translation; validation studies; shoulder; physical therapy
