Psychometric assessment of the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit questionnaire in the United Kingdom.

PURPOSE

To establish the psychometric properties of the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit 24-item (FS-ICU-24) questionnaire in the United Kingdom.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Family-Reported Experiences Evaluation study recruited family members of patients staying at least 24 hours in 20 participating intensive care units. Questionnaires were evaluated for nonresponse, floor/ceiling effects, redundancy, and construct validity. Internal consistency was evaluated with item-to-own scale correlations and Cronbach α. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were used to explore the underlying structure.

RESULTS

Twelve thousand three hundred forty-six family members of 6380 patients were recruited and 7173 (58%) family members of 4615 patients returned a completed questionnaire. One family member per patient was included in the psychometric assessment. Six items had greater than 10% nonresponse; 1 item had a ceiling effect; and 11 items had potential redundancy. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach α, overall .96; satisfaction with care, .94; satisfaction with decision making, .93). The 2-factor solution was not a good fit. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that satisfaction with decision making encompassed 2 constructs-satisfaction with information and satisfaction with the decision-making process.

CONCLUSIONS

The Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit 24-item questionnaire demonstrated good psychometric properties in the United Kingdom setting. Construct validity could be improved by use of 3 domains and some scope for further improvement was identified.