title: Development and validation of a questionnaire for quantitative assessment of perceived discomforts in critically ill patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The psychometric properties and acceptability of the IPREA questionnaire make it a potential instrument for measuring discomfort perceived by unselected ICU patients.
authors.affiliation: Service de Réanimation Polyvalente, Hôpital Louis Pasteur, Hôpitaux de Chartres, 28018, Chartres Cedex, France. pkalfon@ch-chartres.fr.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kalfon
authors.affiliation: Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) de Poitiers, Université de Poitiers and INSERM ERI-23, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mimoz
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Santé publique, EA3279, Faculté de médecine, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Auquier
authors.affiliation: Unité d'Aide Méthodologique à la Recherche Clinique et Epidémiologique, Délégation Régionale à la Recherche Clinique, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Anderson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loundou
authors.affiliation: Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, Unité de Réanimation chirurgicale, CHU Hôtel-Dieu, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France.
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gauzit
authors.affiliation: Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, Unité de Réanimation chirurgicale, CHU de Lyon Sud, Pierre-Bénite, France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lepape
authors.affiliation: Service de Réanimation Polyvalente, Polyclinique des Cèdres, Mérignac, France.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laurens
authors.affiliation: Service de Réanimation Médico-Chirurgicale, Centre Hospitalier du pays d'Aix, Aix-en-Provence, France.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garrigues
authors.affiliation: Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, Réanimation Polyvalente, CHU Hautepierre, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pottecher
authors.affiliation: Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, Université de Rennes 1 and INSERM U 620, CHU Pontchaillou, Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mallédant
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016638:Critical Illness; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires