© 1991 Oxford University Press
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Comparison of French and English Versions of the American Thoracic Society Respiratory Questionnaire in a Bilingual Working Population
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* School of Occupational Health, McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Community Health Department, Lakeshore General Hospital, Pointe-Claire Quebec, Canada.
Reprint requests to: Dr John W Osterman, Community Health Department, Lakeshore General Hospital, 175 Stillview, Room 310, Pointe-Claire (Quebec) Canada H9R 4S3.
Standardized French and English versions of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) respiratory disease questionnaire were administered to 204 English-speaking and 406 French-speaking male blue-collar aviation workers unexposed to occupational respiratory hazards. After adjusting for smoking status, age, years of education, foreign birth and maternal language other than French or English, no significant differences between the two questionnaires were found for response rates to usual cough, usual phlegm, mild or moderate dyspnoea, and chronic bronchitis. French-speaking workers reported significantly less wheeze with colds (OR = 0.60, p<0.02) and wheeze apart from colds (OR = 0.55, p<0.05) than the English-speaking group, but, the occurrence of wheeze on most days or nights was similar for both groups (OR = 1.02, NS). For 66 bilingual workers who completed both French and English questionnaires at a time interval of approximately two months, highly consistent results were found for sociodemographic data, smoking habits, cough, phlegm, breathlessness and chronic bronchitis, but not for wheeze with or apart from colds (agreement <90%; Kappa <0.50). These results reflect the difficulties in translating the concept of ‘wheeze’ from English to French. We conclude that most symptoms elicited by the French questionnaire may be generalized to English-speaking populations, but that questions pertaining to wheeze on most days or nights may be preferable to other questions concerning wheeze.
Revised 1 September 1990
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