Demonstrating the construct stability of a translated exam for family medicine residents.

The world is getting flatter and work is being outsourced to decrease cost and increase efficiency. For this to take place, some standardization of training is necessary. Tests are often used to ensure that equivalent standards are in place tests across all labor suppliers and for this reason, it is important that the test results have equivalent meaning across different forms of the test, even when those forms are translated into other languages. This study evaluated a low-stakes medical certification in-training examination that was translated from English to Spanish and administered in both languages. the construct equivalence between exams was compared using a Raschmeasurement based Differential Item Functioning analysis. Results showed that the construct measured by each exam was in fact stable. As more high-stakes exams are translated between languages and cultures, it is necessary to ensure that exams are measuring the same constructs of interest.