title: Development and validation of the Communicating with Family about Brain Death Scale.
abstract: This study reports development of a scale assessing communication with family about brain-dead organ donation. Two cross-sectional studies demonstrated scale validity. Tests of internal, external, and predictive validity were conducted using confirmatory factor analysis. In both studies, the same 6 items were shown to be unidimensional with acceptable reliability. Parallelism was shown between the Brain Death Scale and a measure of communication with family. Predictive validity was exhibited between participants' donor status and the Brain Death Scale. The scale was associated with knowledge about brain death confirming misconceptions about brain-dead organ donation.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, USA bresnah1@msu.edu.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bresnahan
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001926:Brain Death / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: brain-dead organ donation; communicating with family about brain death; end-of-life decision making; first-person organ donation consent laws; misconceptions about brain death