Introduction:

The WONCA tree is a visual representation of the basic concepts and definitions of the specialty of general and family medicine, published by the Swiss Collège de Médecine de Premier Recours in 2004 and revised in 2011. No Portuguese translation of its 2011 version has been available until now. The aim of this study was to translate, providing a cultural adaptation, and to validate the Portuguese version of the WONCA tree.

Methods:

We performed a consensus analysis based on the English version of the WONCA tree, applying a sequential three steps methodology: review and initial translation; consensus process using the Delphi method; and evaluation and final consensus. A group of 74 experts, all specialists in general and family medicine, among 128 invited, participated in the evaluation of the translated text in two rounds until reaching a pre-established agreement proportion of 80%.

Results:

In the first round the agreement proportion with the proposed expressions was 85.9%, (64.8% to 98.6%). Eight of the 24 expressions did not reach the pre-established level of agreement and were resent after correction, reaching an agreement of 83.1% (80.0 to 87.7%). The final version obtained an overall proportion of agreement of 88.7% (95%CI: 87.1-90.2).

Conclusion:

Scientific language is foremostly technical. Although the universality of English in scientific publishing has significant advantages, allowing effective communication between different countries, there are cultural peculiarities that may not accurately represent the cultural and social characteristics of populations with other languages in a literal translation. This translation validates the WONCA tree for the Portuguese language.

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