Development and psychometric properties of the Early Labour Experience Questionnaire (ELEQ)

Abstract

Objective: to describe the development and psychometric properties of the Early Labour Experiences Questionnaire (ELEQ).

Design: randomized controlled trial.

Setting: hospitals serving obstetric populations in metropolitan and suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Participants: 423 healthy nulliparous women in labour at term with uncomplicated pregnancies.

Intervention: women were randomized to telephone support (n=241) or home visit (n=182) study groups and completed the ELEQ during the postpartum phase of their hospital stay.

Measurement: the ELEQ contains 26 self-report items, rated on a 5-point scale, that measure women's affective experience of early labour (14 items), perceptions of nursing care (12 items), whether they would recommend this type of early labour care to a friend (1 item), and whether they believed they went to the hospital at the right time (1 item). An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine whether the items grouped together into subscales. The structural reliability of the extracted subscales and total scores were evaluated using a number of coefficients. To test criterion validity, we compared ELEQ item, subscale and total scores between the study groups.

Findings: item and total scores showed significant variability. Factor analysis yielded three subscales: Emotional Well-Being, Emotional Distress and Perceptions of Nursing Care. The subscale and total scores showed good internal consistency and item homogeneity, and were interrelated in the expected direction. Items evidenced strong associations with the subscale and total scores. Comparisons between study groups offered some support for criterion validity.

Key conclusions: pending further validation, the ELEQ can contribute to the assessment of women's experiences with different aspects of maternity care, evaluation of the quality of maternity care, and improvement of maternity services.