The Italian version of the Virtual Dementia Tour: Manual translation and an analysis of consistency, validity, and reliability of its pre- post-experience survey

Introduction: Clinical indications on how to approach caregiving with a person living with dementia underline the need "to have an empathic attitude" requiring the caregiver to view the world from the perspective of the person with dementia. However, it is not easy for the caregiver to understand the perspective their patients have on day-to-day experiences. To put the caregivers in the person with dementia's shoes, the Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT) was developed in 2001, and has been administered to millions of health professionals, community leaders, and family caregivers. Method: In this paper we present the Italian version of the VDT and discuss its internal validity and test-retest reliability for the pre-post experience survey defined by the VDT procedure. Results: An Italian sample (N = 419; mean age = 44.8; standard deviation 14.2) completed the tour and a 5-item survey provided before and after the experience revealed the disposition toward people with dementia changed. Discussion: The VDT Italian version was revealed to be valid in supporting a positive perspective change in the perception of dementia as is seen in the original VDT used in English-speaking countries. Highlights: Empathy predicts a higher quality of caregiving for the person living with dementia. The Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT) provides an experience from the person living with dementia's perspective and supports empathy. We present the first Italian version of VDT and its manual translation and validation. Italian VDT internal consistency and test-retest reliability were calculated. Results confirms the reliability and validity of the Italian VDT for empathy.