title: Measuring patient satisfaction with vascular access: vascular access questionnaire development and reliability testing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The primary objective of this study is to measure hemodialysis patients' satisfaction with their vascular access. The secondary objective is to evaluate the measurement tool's psychometric properties to assess patient satisfaction with their vascular access.
  
  
  METHODS
  We generated a comprehensive list of survey items related to patients' views and satisfaction with their vascular access and administered it to participating in-center hemodialysis patients over 4 months. Following a factor analysis, the items were reduced and rescaled to generate the final short-form vascular access questionnaire (SF-VAQ). The SF-VAQ was then administered to a new cohort of hemodialysis patients on two occasions 1 week apart from February 1, 2012, to April 1, 2014. A repeated measures analysis of variance and psychometric evaluation was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final SF-VAQ with 13 items and four domains was administered to 132 patients (35 fistulas, 14 grafts and 83 catheters). The mean Likert value for overall satisfaction on a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high) was 5.98, with catheters, fistulas and grafts with values of 5.92, 6.46 and 5.21, respectively. The test-retest reliability for two occasions is 0.92 and the internal consistency for the first administration is high at 0.84.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SF-VAQ is a short, simple to administer vascular access-specific questionnaire with robust psychometric properties that can be used to obtain the patient's views on their vascular access. Based on the newly developed SF-VAQ, patients were the most satisfied with fistulas, scores.
authors: 2 Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton - Canada.
authors: Sarah Daisy
authors: SD
authors: Kosa
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Bhola
authors: Charmaine E
authors: CE
authors: Lok
mesh_terms: D001166:Arteriovenous Shunt, Surgical / Q000009:adverse effects; D002405:Catheterization, Central Venous / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D009864:Ontario; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome