Translation and equivalence: the Profile of Mood States Short Form in English and Chinese

As international research collaborations increase, health care professionals are becoming more aware of the advantages of using common measures to compare outcomes of assessments across cultures. Measuring mood states across diverse cultures is important for understanding the universal aspects of mood and measuring outcomes of nursing interventions. The purpose of this article is to describe the process used to translate the Profile of Mood States Short Form from English to Chinese and to assess the equivalence of this instrument in the two languages. The translated Chinese version of the instrument was found to be as reliable as the original English version and is appropriate for use with Chinese elders who speak either Mandarin or Taiwanese.