Cultural Comprehensibility of Mental Health Scales

This chapter defines and exemplifies cultural comprehensibility in relation to the translation of mental health scales. Cultural beliefs and values shape individuals’ understanding of health, interpretation of the changes of health status, and perception of the acceptability of health interventions. Therefore, language barriers and cultural beliefs impacts people’s ability to understand and respond to these tools, limiting the meaningfulness of data collected. It is imperative to enhance the cultural comprehensibility of translated and adapted mental health scales.