Health survey instrument development through a community-based participatory research approach: Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II) and Brazilian immigrants in Greater Boston.

Brazilians are among the fastest growing segment of immigrant populations in several states of the United States. Culturally appropriate and validated health survey instruments do not exist to adequately assess the health needs of this population. Through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, a cross-cultural pilot project was conducted to develop and test a culturally-adapted Brazilian Portuguese-version of the health-promoting lifestyle profile II (HPLP-II) instrument with a convenience sample of 60 bilingual and bicultural Brazilian immigrants using a combined quasi experimental and focus group design. The project evaluated HPLP-II instrument's psychometric properties of equivalency, reliability, and score distribution in Portuguese and English. This pilot test supports equivalency, consistency, and reliability of the English and culturally-adapted Brazilian Portuguese versions of the instrument. CBPR is an effective approach in health instrument development. This instrument is an important first step in designing other appropriate instruments to explore health conditions of Brazilian immigrants in the U.S.