Performance of the Faces Anxiety Scale in patients transferred from the ICU

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients are often not able to respond to long self-report instruments, therefore, in order to assess anxiety accurately, a short and easy to use measure is required. The Faces Anxiety Scale (FAS) developed by McKinley et al. [McKinley S, Coote K, Stein-Parbury J. Development and testing of a faces scale for the assessment of anxiety in critically ill patients. J Adv Nurs 2003;41(1):73-9.] has promised to be such an instrument. This study assessed the construct validity of the FAS against the well validated anxiety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), in an ICU population ready for transfer to the ward. The study was a part of a larger study of transfer anxiety. The FAS showed good correlation with the anxiety sub-scale of the HADS which strengthened over time. The FAS was easy and quick to use and seemed to measure anxiety in ICU patients that were ready to move to the wards, however, further testing in a larger sample and with sicker ICU patients is required.