Official Japanese Version of the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale: validation against the original English version

• Published in: Movement disorders clinical practice (Hoboken, N.J.) N.J.), 2014-09, Vol.1 (3), p.200-212
• Main Authors: Kashihara, Kenichi, Kondo, Tomoyoshi, Mizuno, Yoshikuni, Kikuchi, Seiji, Kuno, Sadako, Hasegawa, Kazuko, Hattori, Nobutaka, Mochizuki, Hideki, Mori, Hideo, Murata, Miho, Nomoto, Masahiro, Takahashi, Ryosuke, Takeda, Atsushi, Tsuboi, Yoshio, Ugawa, Yoshikazu, Yamanmoto, Mitsutoshi, Yokochi, Fusako, Yoshii, Fumihito, Stebbins, Glenn T, Tilley, Barbara C, Luo, Sheng, Wang, Lu, LaPelle, Nancy R, Goetz, Christopher G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2330-1619; 2330-1619

The Movement Disorder Society (MDS)-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease (PD) Rating Scale (UPDRS) (MDS-UPDRS) has been developed and is now available in English. Part of the overall program includes the establishment of official non-English translations of the MDS-UPDRS. We present the process for completing the official Japanese translation of the MDS-UPDRS with clinimetric testing results. In this trial, the MDS-UPDRS was translated into Japanese, underwent cognitive pre-testing, and the translation was modified after taking the results into account. The final translation was approved as Official Working Draft of the MDS-UPDRS Japanese version and tested in 365 native-Japanese-speaking patients with PD. Confirmatory analyses were used to determine whether the factor structure for the English-language MDS-UPDRS could be confirmed in data collected using the Official Working Draft of the Japanese translation. As a secondary analysis, we used exploratory factor analyses to examine the underlying factor structure without the constraint of a pre-specified factor organization. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that Comparative Fit Index for all Parts of the MDS-UPDRS exceeded the minimal standard of 0.90 relative to the English version and therefore Japanese translation met the pre-specified criterion to be designated called an OFFICIAL MDS TRANSLATION. Secondary analyses revealed some differences between the English-language MDS-UPDRS and the Japanese translation, however, these differences were considered to be within an acceptable range. The Japanese version of the MDS-UPDRS met the criterion as an Official MDS Translation and is now available for use (www.movementdisorders.org).