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Multicenter Study
. 2010 Oct;36(10):1751-1758.
doi: 10.1007/s00134-010-1902-9. Epub 2010 May 26.

Development and validation of a questionnaire for quantitative assessment of perceived discomforts in critically ill patients

Pierre Kalfon  1 , Olivier Mimoz  2 , Pascal Auquier  3 , Anderson Loundou  4 , Rémy Gauzit  5 , Alain Lepape  6 , Jean Laurens  7 , Bernard Garrigues  8 , Thierry Pottecher  9 , Yannick Mallédant  10
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Development and validation of a questionnaire for quantitative assessment of perceived discomforts in critically ill patients

Pierre Kalfon et al. Intensive Care Med. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: To develop and validate the IPREA (Inconforts des Patients de REAnimation) questionnaire for the assessment of discomfort perceived by patients related to their intensive care unit (ICU) stay.

Methods: This was a two step-study comprising a phase of item generation conducted in one ICU and a phase of psychometric evaluation during a multicenter prospective cohort study in 14 ICUs. Patients were unselected consecutive adult surviving ICU patients. On the day of ICU discharge, a nurse asked patients to rate the severity of 16 discomfort sources, from 0 to 100. Ten percent of patients were randomly chosen to be questioned again to assess the reproducibility.

Results: Of 1,380 eligible patients, 1,113 survived and 868 patients could be questioned. The highest scores were for sleep deprivation (35 ± 33), being restrained by tubing, wires, and cables (33 ± 30), pain (32 ± 30), and thirst (32 ± 34). No multidimensional structure was identified. The mean overall score of discomfort was 22 ± 14. Internal consistency was satisfactory using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.78). The test-retest reliability study found average measure intraclass correlations ranging from 0.70 to 0.92. The mean duration of the questionnaire administration was 10 ± 7 min.

Conclusion: The psychometric properties and acceptability of the IPREA questionnaire make it a potential instrument for measuring discomfort perceived by unselected ICU patients.

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