The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel survey on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks. The panel consists of more than 45,000 individuals aged 50 or over. Having fielded the baseline of this bi-annual panel study in 2004/05, SHARE is now in its fourth wave of data collection.

To ensure high quality in comparative data collection, the same SHARE questionnaire is implemented with a single Blaise CAPI instrument in all countries. The different country teams translate their version of the instruments over the internet (using a web browser) via the Language Management Utility (LMU), a web application developed by CentERdata. All translated texts such as question texts, interviewer instructions, answer categories, fill texts, error messages, etc. can be translated into country specific survey instruments, based on the blueprint of the generic version. When some texts change during the development process of the questionnaire and the pilots, flags are added so that translators can immediately see what work has to be done. The translated texts are then automatically inserted into the Blaise questionnaire using the Blaise Generator application, also developed by CentERdata.

This presentation aims to provide insight into translations in the survey process, when a single CAPI survey instrument is implemented across multiple languages. We will showcase how the translation process can benefit from the LMU, especially in panel surveys, and also point out the challenges encountered with this instrument. Finally, we will address future opportunities both in terms of survey management and in terms of the analysis potential of the LMU paradata.