The Cornell Assessment of Pediatric Delirium: Translation and inter-rater reliability in a Danish pediatric intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND

Delirium is a serious medical problem and recognized as a common syndrome in critically ill children. Without routine screening, delirium diagnosis is often missed by the medical providers. Internationally, there are tools to assess pediatric delirium (PD), but none currently available in Danish. The aim of this project was to translate the Cornell Assessment of Pediatric Delirium (CAPD) into Danish and determine its feasibility and reliability in a Danish clinical setting.

METHODS

Translation was done in accordance with WHO guidelines. Linguistic and cultural differences were reconciled with the original developers of the instrument. The Danish CAPD was then tested in a prospective cohort of children admitted to a single pediatric intensive care unit at a university hospital in Denmark. Inter-rater reliability was determined using weighted Kappa statistics.

RESULTS

Thirty children were enrolled, and 92 delirium assessments were completed. Inter-rater reliability (n = 84) revealed that inter-observer agreement among the nurses was high (κ 0.85). The Danish version of the CAPD was successfully administered in all children.

CONCLUSIONS

Standardized assessment tools are a pre-requisite to identify PD. A Danish version of the CAPD now exists, and preliminary testing has demonstrated it as feasible and reliable for use in a Danish clinical setting. A multi-institutional study is needed to determine the prevalence of PD in Denmark.