Translation and cultural adaptation of tools to assess diverse Asian American and Asian Canadian subgroups: The Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) Study

INTRODUCTION: The availability of sociocultural and language-appropriate study materials and instruments is critical for the assessment of cognitive function in people from diverse backgrounds. This report describes the translations and cultural adaptations of study materials for the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) study. METHODS: We performed translations and cultural adaptations in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) translation guidelines to ensure reliable, complete, and culturally appropriate translations from English to the specified Asian languages. RESULTS: We developed Asian language versions of the ACAD documents (consent, data collection packet, and community and social media outreach materials) reflecting the sociocultural backgrounds of the ACAD target population (i.e., older Asian adults). DISCUSSION: The multistep translation process accounting for distinctive Asian sociocultural and language backgrounds provides an important guideline for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) researchers to promote health literacy and research with underrepresented Asian American and Canadian adults. Highlights: Asian American and Asian Canadian older adults are the fastest-growing populations. A lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate cognitive assessment tools creates barriers for quality healthcare and clinical research. We report the translations and cultural adaptations of the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) study materials into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. This translation methodology should be extended to Asian Indians, Filipinos, and other Asian American or Asian Canadian populations.