title: Validation of the Finnegan neonatal abstinence syndrome tool-short form.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to reduce the number of items in the Modified Finnegan Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Tool (M-FNAST) to the minimum possible while retaining or improving its validity in a short version.
  
  
  METHODS
  All infants with a diagnosis of neonatal abstinence syndrome (171) who were admitted to a large neonatal intensive care unit in southwest Florida between September 2010 and October 2012 comprised the sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a psychometric evaluation of 33 856 M-FNAST assessments that were downloaded from the electronic medical record.
  
  
  METHODS
  Principal axis factoring extraction with varimax rotation was performed on the M-FNAST data. Principal components extraction was used before principal factors extraction to estimate the number of factors with the scree test and factorability of the correlation matrices with Bartlett's chi-square test, and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The M-FNAST scores ranged from 0 to 29, with a mean of 3.5 (SD = 2.5). Less than 1% (21) of infants had scores of 17 or more. Nearly all (97.7%) scores fell between 0 and 9. Most subjects were full-term gestation, but 11 were preterm between 28 and 37 weeks' gestational age. The 2-factor solution explained 23.74% of the total variance and consists of 2 factors, mild/early and moderate/advanced signs. The 2-factor solution was significantly correlated with the total score on the MFNAST (r = 0.917; P < .001). Among infants who scored 8 or greater, the total score on the 2-factor solution short form FNAST was significantly correlated with the total score on the M-FNAST (r = 0.629; P < .001).
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of South Florida, Tampa (Dr Maguire and Mr Tai); All Children's Hospital, St Petersburg, Florida (Mr Cline); and Maternal Child Health, Western Baptist Hospital, Padukah, Kentucky (Mr Parnell).
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.forename: Genieveve J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Cline
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parnell
authors.forename: Chun-Yi
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Tai
mesh_terms: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008297:Male; D009357:Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000451:nursing; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid