Development and validation of a pregnancy symptoms inventory

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

Joan Webster¹  Nuala M Byrne³  Leonie K Callaway²  Katie F Foxcroft⁴ 

[1] Centre for Clinical Nursing, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia;Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;School of Human Movement Studies and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia;Department of Internal Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia

关键词: Survey;    Questionnaire;    Pregnancy symptoms;    Inventory;    Checklist;   

Others  :  1151312
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2393-13-3

 received in 2012-07-02, accepted in 2012-12-27,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Physical symptoms are common in pregnancy and are predominantly associated with normal physiological changes. These symptoms have a social and economic cost, leading to absenteeism from work and additional medical interventions. There is currently no simple method for identifying common pregnancy related problems in the antenatal period. A validated tool, for use by pregnancy care providers would be useful. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a Pregnancy Symptoms Inventory for use by health professionals.

Methods

A list of symptoms was generated via expert consultation with health professionals. Focus groups were conducted with pregnant women. The inventory was tested for face validity and piloted for readability and comprehension. For test-re-test reliability, the tool was administered to the same women 2 to 3 days apart. Finally, midwives trialled the inventory for 1 month and rated its usefulness on a 10cm visual analogue scale (VAS).

Results

A 41-item Likert inventory assessing how often symptoms occurred and what effect they had, was developed. Individual item test re-test reliability was between .51 to 1, the majority (34 items) scoring ≥0.70. The top four “often” reported symptoms were urinary frequency (52.2%), tiredness (45.5%), poor sleep (27.5%) and back pain (19.5%). Among the women surveyed, 16.2% claimed to sometimes or often be incontinent. Referrals to the incontinence nurse increased > 8 fold during the study period.

Conclusions

The PSI provides a comprehensive inventory of pregnancy related symptoms, with a mechanism for assessing their effect on function. It was robustly developed, with good test re-test reliability, face validity, comprehension and readability. This provides a validated tool for assessing the impact of interventions in pregnancy.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Foxcroft et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Attard C: The burden of illness of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in the United States. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002, 186:S220-S227.
• [2]Behrenz KM, Monga M: Fatigue in Pregnancy. Am J Perinatol 1999, 1999(4):185-188.
• [3]Callaway LK: Prevention of gestational diabetes: feasibility issues for an exercise intervention in obese pregnant women. Diabetes Care 2010, 33(7):1457-1459.
• [4]Zib M, Lim L, Walters WA: Symptoms during normal pregnancy: a prospective controlled study. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 1999, 39(4):401-410.
• [5]Jomeen J, Martin CR: The factor structure of the SF-36 in early pregnancy. J Psychosom Res 2005, 59(3):131-138.
• [6]O'Brien B, Naber S: Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy: effects on the quality of women's lives. Birth 1992, 19(3):138-143.
• [7]Smith MD, Russell A, Hodges PW: Disorders of breathing and continence have a stronger association with back pain than obesity and physical activity. Aust J Physiother 2006, 52(1):11-16.
• [8]Rodriguez A, Bohlin G, Lindmark G: Symptoms across pregnancy in relation to psychosocial and biomedical factors. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 2001, 80(3):213-223.
• [9]Melzack R: New approaches to measuring nausea. CMAJ 1985, 133(8):755-758. 761
• [10]Milligan RA: Measuring women's fatigue during the postpartum period. J Nurs Meas 1997, 5(1):3-16.
• [11]Roland MO: The natural history of back pain. Practitioner 1983, 227(1381):1119-1122.
• [12]Hajebrahimi S, Corcos J, Lemieux MC: International consultation on incontinence questionnaire short form: comparison of physician versus patient completion and immediate and delayed self-administration. Urology 2004, 63(6):1076-1078.
• [13]Johns MW: A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: the Epworth sleepiness scale. Sleep 1991, 14(6):540-545.
• [14]Mokkink LB: The COSMIN checklist for assessing the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties of health status measurement instruments: an international Delphi study. Qual Life Res 2010, 19(4):539-549.
• [15]Wilson L: Annual Direct Cost of Urinary Incontinence. Obstet Gynecol 2001, 98(No.3):398-406.
• [16]Chiarelli P, Brown W: Leaking urine in Australian women: prevalence and associated conditions. Women & Health (WOMEN HEALTH) 1999, 29(1):1-13.
• [17]Chiarelli P: Urinary Incontinence:the last taboo? Aust J Rural Health 2004, 12:277-278.