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Towards measurement of outcome for patients with varicose veins.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a valid and reliable outcome measure for patients with varicose veins. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey of patients with varicose veins. SETTING: Surgical outpatient departments and training general practices in Grampian region. SUBJECTS: 373 patients, 287 of whom had just been referred to hospital for their varicose veins and 86 who had just consulted a general practitioner for this condition and, for comparison, a random sample of 900 members of the general population. MAIN MEASURES: Content validity, internal consistency, and criterion validity. RESULTS: 281(76%) patients (mean age 45.8; 76% female) and 542(60%) of the general population (mean age 47.9; 54% female) responded. The questionnaire had good internal consistency as measured by item-total correlations. Factor analysis identified four important health factors: pain and dysfunction, cosmetic appearance, extent of varicosity and complications. The validity of the questionnaire was demonstrated by a high correlation with the SF-36 health profile, which is a general measure of patients' health. The perceived health of patients with varicose veins, as measured by the SF-36, was significantly lower than that of the sample of the general population adjusted for age and a lower proportion of women. CONCLUSION: A clinically derived questionnaire can provide a valid and reliable tool to assess the perceived health of patients with varicose veins. IMPLICATIONS: The questionnaire may be used to justify surgical treatment of varicose veins.

Adult↗

[Development of a scale to measure self-care for korean patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was the development and validation of a scale to measure the self-care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) in Korea. METHOD: Self-care scale was developed based on the self-care activities patients had to carry out in order to manage their COPD. The original scale contained 34 items rated along a five-point Likert scale and was reviewed by 18 professional nurses and 10 Korean patients with COPD for content validity. Subsequently, patients with COPD were asked to complete this 23-item scale and further tests were done with the 125 useable responses. RESULT: Factor analysis identified eight factors- "maintaining a clean air way", "taking medication", "support from family", "preventing infection", "managing symptoms", "breathing exercising", and "taking in nutrition". The internal consistency of the total scale was Cronbach's alpha=0.7226. These eight factors explained 60.8% of total variance. There was correlation among Korean Self-Care Scale score, administration level, and knowledge level but there was no correlation to patients' satisfaction with medical services. CONCLUSION: The 23 item questionnaire positively identified 8 areas defined important for COPD patients. Further studies are required to see how these can be integrated into patient education.

English Abstract↗

Developing and validating a Chinese instrument to measure lower urinary tract symptoms among employed women in Taiwan.

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), including urinary incontinence, negatively affect women's quality of life. Employed women are particularly prone to experiencing the negative aspects of LUTS due to their irregular access to toilet facilities. In Taiwan, about 70% of women 25-44 years of age are employed, yet little research on LUTS in the workplace has been conducted. In this article, the development of a Chinese instrument for estimating prevalence of LUTS and identifying factors related to LUTS among employed women is discussed. After instrument-generation and translations, content validity of the instrument was assessed and found to be satisfactory. Following a pilot test, psychometric testing of the instrument (which included test-retest reliability and internal consistency) was conducted. Test-retest reliability for the majority of the items and internal consistency for the construct LUTS were adequate. Based on initial psychometric testing, the authors suggest the instrument is appropriate for use with women in Taiwan. Additional testing is recommended before being used with other populations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Quality of life of adults with chronic illness: a psychometric study.

Reliability and validity of the Flanagan Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) were tested in four chronic illness groups. Open-ended questions and four instruments, the QOLS, Duke-UNC Health Profile (DUHP), Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-Z), and either the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS) or the Ostomy Adjustment Scale (OAS) were administered by telephone interview and mailed questionnaires to 227 adults three times over 6 weeks. Subjects generated verbal responses that substantiated the content validity of the QOLS. Stability reliability estimates for all instruments ranged from .53 to .90. Cronbach's alpha coefficients averaged .87 for the QOLS. Appropriate validity coefficients indicated both convergent and discriminant construct validity.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Development and initial validation of an instrument to measure physicians' use of, knowledge about, and attitudes toward computers.

UNLABELLED: This paper describes details of four scales of a questionnaire-- "Computers in Medical Care"--measuring attributes of computer use, self-reported computer knowledge, computer feature demand, and computer optimism of academic physicians. The reliability (i.e., precision, or degree to which the scale's result is reproducible) and validity (i.e., accuracy, or degree to which the scale actually measures what it is supposed to measure) of each scale were examined by analysis of the responses of 771 full-time academic physicians across four departments at five academic medical centers in the United States. The objectives of this paper were to define the psychometric properties of the scales as the basis for a future demonstration study and, pending the results of further validity studies, to provide the questionnaire and scales to the medical informatics community as a tool for measuring the attitudes of health care providers. METHODOLOGY: The dimensionality of each scale and degree of association of each item with the attribute of interest were determined by principal components factor analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation. Weakly associated items (factor loading < .40) were deleted. The reliability of each resultant scale was computed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Content validity was addressed during scale construction; construct validity was examined through factor analysis and by correlational analyses. RESULTS: Attributes of computer use, computer knowledge, and computer optimism were unidimensional, with the corresponding scales having reliabilities of .79, .91, and .86, respectively. The computer-feature demand attribute differentiated into two dimensions: the first reflecting demand for high-level functionality with reliability of .81 and the second demand for usability with reliability of .69. There were significant positive correlations between computer use, computer knowledge, and computer optimism scale scores and respondents' hands-on computer use, computer training, and self-reported computer sophistication. In addition, items posited on the computer knowledge scale to be more difficult generated significantly lower scores. CONCLUSION: The four scales of the questionnaire appear to measure with adequate reliability five attributes of academic physicians' attitudes toward computers in medical care: computer use, self-reported computer knowledge, demand for computer functionality, demand for computer usability, and computer optimism. Results of initial validity studies are positive, but further validation of the scales is needed. The URL of a downloadable HTML copy of the questionnaire is provided.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Rigorous statistical reliability, validity, and responsiveness testing of the Cincinnati knee rating system in 350 subjects with uninjured, injured, or anterior cruciate ligament-reconstructed knees.

Although many instruments are used to assess outcome after knee ligament reconstruction, their reliability, validity, and responsiveness have not been adequately proven. Our purpose was to assess these statistical measures in a commonly used instrument, the Cincinnati Knee Rating System. Reliability was determined from the responses of 100 subjects who completed the instrument twice, a mean of 7 days apart. Validity and responsiveness were assessed from 250 patients observed for at least 2 years after autogenous ACL reconstruction. Questionnaire items included symptoms, functional limitations with sports and daily activities, patient perception of the knee condition, and sports- and occupational-activity levels. The items demonstrated high test-retest reliability, supporting their use in evaluating groups of patients between two different treatment periods (all intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.70). In addition, the questionnaire demonstrated good content validity, construct validity, and item-discriminant validity. For the overall rating score, no "floor effects" (worst score possible) were found before or after surgery. No "ceiling effects" (best score possible) were found before surgery, and, at follow-up, these effects were calculated in only 22 patients (9%). The questions were found to be highly responsive to detecting changes between evaluations. The data demonstrated that this rating system has acceptable reliability, validity, and responsiveness for use in outcome studies after knee ligament reconstruction.

Adolescent↗

Design and testing of the use of a complementary and alternative therapies survey in women with breast cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To design and test a reliable and valid instrument to determine the frequency of use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies among women diagnosed with breast cancer. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Women were recruited from the southeastern area and a rural midwestern area of the United States. SAMPLE: 105 predominantly Caucasian women (mean= 59 years of age) with a diagnosis of breast cancer. METHODS: The Use of Complementary and Alternative Therapies Survey was designed with a content validity index, and reliability was determined with the coefficient alpha. Exploratory factor analysis using a principal components analysis identified primary components (factors) embedded within the survey. Frequency of CAM therapy use was calculated for 33 individual therapies listed on the survey and among three survey-defined subscales of CAM therapies (i.e., diet and nutritional supplements, stress-reducing techniques, and traditional and ethnic medicines). MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Psychometric properties of an instrument to assess frequency of use of CAM among women with breast cancer. FINDINGS: The reported prevalence of use of the individual CAM therapies varied considerably. The coefficient alpha estimate for the total survey was 0.86. Estimates for the individual hypothesized subscales were 0.67 for diet and nutritional supplements, 0.79 for stress-reducing techniques, and 0.80 for traditional and ethnic medicines. The principal components analysis resulted in a two-factor solution with nine items that loaded heavily and uniquely on a factor conceptualized as stress and anxiety reduction and six items that loaded heavily and uniquely on a factor conceptualized as dietary and physical manipulation. The remaining five items (vitamins and minerals, prayer and spiritual healing, massage, reflexology, and aromatherapy) indicated moderate loadings on factors one and two and, thus, were interpreted as equivocal items. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary data indicated that the instrument is reliable and valid. Additional work is needed to improve the range of items and to test the instrument with other populations. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Use of CAM by women with breast cancer is believed to be increasing. However, limited data exist on the frequency and predictors of its use in this patient population; therefore, reliable and valid instruments are needed to determine use. If nurses can determine which CAM therapies women are employing, nurses can educate patients with breast cancer on the safe use of these therapies.

Breast Neoplasms↗

Psychometric properties of the "Modified Transplant Symptom Occurrence and Symptom Distress Scale".

The aim of this study was to assess key aspects of the reliability and validity of the "Modified Transplant Symptom Occurrence and Distress Scale," an instrument measuring symptom experience associated with side effects of triple drug therapy in transplant patients. This cross-sectional, comparative study included 108 renal transplant recipients (61% men; 39% women) with a median age of 47 years and a median posttransplant status of 5.5 years. Renal transplant patients were matched by age and gender with 108 healthy control persons not taking immunosuppressive drugs. Content validity, construct validity and discriminant validity of the instrument were substantiated. Internal consistency reliability was not useful to assess in this instrument, as the conditions for calculating Cronbach's alpha were not satisfied. These findings document the validity of the "Modified Transplant Symptom Occurrence and Symptom Distress Scale" as an instrument to measure symptom experience with immunosuppressive drugs.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents↗

Validity and reliability test of parent's satisfaction in children with closed totally displaced supracondylar humeral fracture.

OBJECTIVE: To construct a questionnaire with validity and reliability test of the parents' satisfaction in children with closed totally displaced supracondylar humeral fractures and to compare the satisfaction score between group A, closed reduction and pinning and group B,open reduction and pinning. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The questionnaire was developed in 19 items 5 dimensions 1. The deformity 2. The doctor and nursing care 3. The cosmetic results 4. The range of motion of the elbow 5. The complications. The content validity was approved by 5 experts. In item score. From 1996 to 2004, the parents of the children with fractures were included.Sixteen parents gave the satisfaction score 2 times by 1 month interval after 6 months from the initial injuries. Nine parents were in group A and 7 parents were in group B. The reliability test by Cronbach's alpha was done. The satisfaction score was compared between group A and group B. RESULTS: The average item score was 0.86 (0.6-1). The Cronbach's alpha was 0.6482 in group A and 0.8037 in group B. The mean parents satisfaction score were 81.4 in group A and 70.0 in group B with statistical significant difference (P = 0.008). CONCLUSION: The questionnaire had good validity and reliability and could be helpful in decision making for the choice of the treatment. The closed reduction should be done first from the parent's point of view.

Adult↗

Pathways for continence care: the validation process.

This article is the third in a series of three describing a collaborative project between continence advisers in Loddon NHS Trust, Basingstoke, East Wiltshire Healthcare Trust, Swindon, and Salisbury Healthcare Trust to develop and implement care pathways to improve continence care provided to patients. The first article described the issues facing the continence advisers and the background to the decision to develop evidence-based care pathways (Vol 9(9): 590-6). The second covered the literature search and described how each pathway evolved (Vol (17): 1165-72). This article outlines the mechanisms by which the care pathways were subjected to a process of content validation.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Content and construct validity of a Spanish translation of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory for children living in Puerto Rico.

Although Puerto Rican children with disabilities are at high risk for poor developmental outcomes, no standardized measures are validated for use with these children. In this study, we evaluated the content and construct validity of a Spanish translation of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) for use with children living in Puerto Rico. Methods included expert content review, surveys of parents, and the evaluation of 44 children with and without disabilities, who were matched for socio-economic status, age, and gender. The results demonstrated that the translated version of the PEDI is valid; yet additional research is warranted to identify socio-cultural influences on the performance and capability of typically developing Puerto Rican children.

Child↗

[Elaboration and validation of a specific quality of life questionnaire for urination urgency in women].

Urgent micturition interferes with the quality of life (QoL) of women suffering from this symptom. In order to evaluate this disturbance of quality of life and the benefits of treatment, a self-administered questionnaire, specific to the disorders of urgent micturition in women, was developed from a pre-existing scale (Measurement of Urinary Handicap, MUH). The following developmental methodology was adopted: Generation of a first instrument from the patient's descriptions collected by a multidisciplinary group of clinicians: formulation of questions, regrouping of questions into dimensions, choice of reference period and modalities of response. Content validation and test of comprehension in 20 patients. Transverse pilot study (98 patients) designed to reduce the number of questions and analyse the internal reliability and clinical validity. Reproducibility study. The final questionnaire comprises 24 items grouped into 5 dimensions: activities (8 items), emotional repercussions (5), self-image (5), sleep (3), well-being (3). The relevance of regrouping of the questions in their dimension and of calculation of a global score was confirmed by a principal component analysis and multifactorial analysis. The internal reliability and reproducibility of the scores were satisfactory, with a Cronbach alpha of > 0.70 and an intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.80, respectively. The clinical validity of the questionnaire was verified: the QoL scores of patients became significantly lower as the symptoms became more severe. A specific, reliable and clinically valid questionnaire, expressed in the form of a global score and a profile, was able to be developed. The profile of patients suffering from urgent micturition reflects the repercussions of the disease on the major and specific domains of their QoL. This questionnaire presents the required properties to be used in clinical trials designed to evaluate the effects of treatments on the patients' QoL, as a complement to classical clinical evaluations.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Development of a symptom severity index and a symptom impact index for stress incontinence in women.

Stress incontinence is a common problem among women, yet there is no adequately validated instrument for measuring women's views of its severity (disease-specific health status). The only instrument for measuring the impact or bothersomeness of symptoms (disease-specific quality of life) has poor internal consistency. This paper describes the development and psychometric assessment of two new indexes, a Symptom Severity Index and a Symptom Impact Index. Following several qualitative enquiries, a questionnaire was developed and administered to 442 women undergoing stress incontinence surgery. The face and content validity of the items comprising the indexes was good. The Severity Index (0-20) showed good variability (median 14, interquartile range 6) and adequate internal consistency (alpha 0.76). The Impact Index (0-12) also had good variability (median 5, interquartile range 3.5) and internal consistency (alpha 0.80). Convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated for both indexes. Test-retest reliability was high. While responsiveness is still to be tested, the two indexes are psychometrically strong and can be used to measure the severity and impact of stress incontinence in women.

Adult↗

The Constitutional Type Questionnaire: validation in the patient population of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital.

In homeopathy the choice of a medicine is based on the total 'picture' presented by the patient. This picture includes 'constitutional type' which comprises personality, and general physical features. The Constitutional Type Questionnaire (CTQ) is designed to systematically assess constitutional types. This study examines the reliability and validity of the CTQ. Four hundred and seventy-two outpatients attending clinics at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital completed the CTQ, a 152-item scale rating features traditionally considered typical of 19 constitutional homeopathic medicine 'pictures' on 5-point frequency or severity scales. A subsample was retested after 1 week to measure the test-retest reliability. Another subsample was prescribed a medicine by a homeopathic doctor. Prescriptions were compared with the CTQ, to assess the content validity of the scale. The construct validity was measured by Grade of Membership (GOM) analysis. The scale demonstrated good test-retest reliability (r=0.73), internal consistency (r=0.95). The correlation between CTQ results and the medicine prescribed by the homeopathic doctor was 75.8%. The GOM analyses are reported by Davidson et al elsewhere in this issue of the journal. Although the CTQ could be improved, the scale displays good reliability and validity.

Homeopathy↗

Validity and reliability of the family inventory of needs (FIN): measuring the care needs of families of advanced cancer patients.

Two studies balanced qualitative and quantitative data to provide evidence of satisfactory validity and reliability of the Family Inventory of Needs (FIN). The FIN is designed to measure the importance of care needs of families of advanced cancer patients (FIN-Importance of Care Needs subscale) and the extent to which families perceive that their care needs have been met (FIN-Fulfillment of Care Needs subscale). The first study involved development of the instrument and testing for clarity, apparent internal consistency (non-quantitative assessment of homogeneity of content), and content validity using a panel of six experts (family members of advanced cancer patients). The FIN met or exceeded the preset criteria specified used in this phase of testing. The second study of the project used 109 family members of advanced cancer patients from three hospice programs to test the FIN for internal consistency and construct validity. Internal consistency of the FIN-Importance of Care Needs subscale as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .83 without redundancy. Construct analysis was assessed using factor analysis techniques. An inability to extract a substantively meaningful minimum number of factors, together with the fact that a theta reliability coefficient of .85 was obtained (only .02 higher than the alpha coefficient), suggested that the items were parallel supporting the conclusion that the subscale is unidimensional. Support for the construct validity of the FIN-Importance of Care Needs subscale was also obtained using predictive modeling. The internal structure of the FIN-Fulfillment of Care Needs subscale was assessed using cluster analysis. Results suggested that the subscale is a unidimensional one. Overall, the FIN met the preset reliability and validity criteria providing promising evidence for the instrument's sound psychometric properties for use in research and clinical settings.

Adult↗

Assessing the appropriateness of pain medication prescribing practices in nursing homes.

OBJECTIVES: To test a tool for screening the quality of nursing home (NH) pain medication prescribing. DESIGN: Validity and reliability of measurement tool developed for a pre/postintervention with untreated comparison group. SETTING: Six treatment NHs and six comparison NHs in rural and urban Colorado. PARTICIPANTS: NH staff, physicians, and repeated 20% random sample of each home's residents (N = 2,031). INTERVENTION: Nurse and physician education; NH internal pain team to champion better pain management using a pain vital sign, consultations, and rounds. MEASUREMENTS: An expert panel reviewed the Pain Medication Appropriateness Scale (PMAS) for content validity. Research assistants interviewed NH residents, assessed them for pain using standardized instruments, and reviewed their medical records for prescriptions and use of pain and adjuvant medication. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the PMAS of residents in pain with the PMAS of those not in pain and comparing scores in homes in which the intervention was more effective with those in which it was less effective, using the Fisher exact and Student t tests. Interrater and test-retest reliability were measured. RESULTS: The mean total PMAS was 64% of optimal. Fewer than half of residents with predictably recurrent pain were prescribed scheduled pain medication; 23% received at least one high-risk medication. PMAS scores were better for residents not in pain (68% vs 60%, P = .004) and in homes where nurses' knowledge of pain assessment and management improved or stayed the same during the intervention (69% vs 61%, P = .03). CONCLUSION: The PMAS is useful for assessing pain medication prescribing in NHs and elucidates why so many residents have poorly controlled pain.

Adult↗

A critical pathway for intimate partner violence across the continuum of care.

OBJECTIVE: The authors developed an interdisciplinary critical pathway for intimate partner violence (IPV) assessment and intervention for use across health care settings. Intimate partner violence may be emotional, physical, and/or sexual and involves coercion and control by one partner over the other. DESIGN: A pathway developed with input from focus groups of battered women was subjected to a modified Delphi technique to improve the pathway's scientific accuracy and feasibility. SETTING: The study was conducted in one urban, one suburban, and one rural hospital with IPV advocacy programs in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Four researchers and 13 clinicians participated in the validation, with at least one physician, one nurse, and one social worker or IPV counselor from each hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Each element of the pathway was analyzed for the degree of consensus on scientific accuracy and feasibility. RESULTS: Consensus on the scientific accuracy and feasibility of the pathway was achieved after three rounds of the Delphi process. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first known critical pathway for IPV. It addresses physical and mental health and safety and has content validity affirmed by an interdisciplinary panel of experts. Further process and outcome evaluation is warranted and invited.

Battered Women↗

The measurement of quality of care in public sector psychiatric services based on consumer expectations.

In this study the expectations of consumers of public sector psychiatric care in South Africa were identified, and formulated in the form of 13 standards, each with a set of criteria. During this phase input from the literature was incorporated, and expectations were validated with different groups of consumers, so that rural/urban, ethnicity and regional differences were taken into account. Based on the comprehensive set of standards and criteria, four instruments were developed to measure attainment of these standards. These included a questionnaire to consumers and one to the Director of Mental Health. It also included two schedules to be filled in by observers during site visits to hospital units and clinics. The observer teams included community members and consumers. The content validity of the instruments was established by setting out the items measuring each criterium, and validating that with a group of experts. The instruments were then tested in one province. The inter-rater reliability of the site visit schedules was calculated as 0.94, and the coding of the Director questionnaire by different coders was also tested. The average performance on all criteria was calculated, using items from all four data collection instruments. In the process items were revised, coding instructions developed, and criteria adjusted.

Data Collection↗