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Development and reliability testing of the Victoria Bowel Performance Scale (BPS)
G Michael Downing1, Craig Kuziemsky, Mary Lesperance
1Faculty of Medicine, Division of Palliative Care, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. michael.downing@viha.ca
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
|August 1, 2007
Summary
The Victoria Bowel Performance Scale (BPS) reliably measures changes in bowel function for palliative care patients, assessing stool, pattern, and control. Further clinical testing is recommended for this new bowel management tool.
Area of Science:
- Palliative Care
- Clinical Assessment Tools
- Gastroenterology
Background:
- Bowel function changes are common and distressing for palliative care patients.
- Existing tools often fail to capture both constipation and diarrhea comprehensively.
- Improved monitoring is crucial for enhancing the quality of care in palliative settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the reliability of the newly developed Victoria Bowel Performance Scale (BPS).
- To evaluate the BPS's consistency in assessing bowel status using case scenarios.
- To establish the BPS as a dependable tool for monitoring palliative care patients' bowel function.
Main Methods:
- The Victoria Bowel Performance Scale (BPS), a nine-point ordinal scale (-4 to +4), was utilized.
- Test-retest reliability was assessed using 18 case scenarios.
- Sixty-seven raters in Time Period 1 and 54 in Time Period 2 participated in the assessment.
Main Results:
- High intraclass correlation coefficients (0.822 and 0.853) indicated strong inter-rater reliability.
- An average Cohen's kappa of 0.70 demonstrated consistent scoring over time.
- A high average Pearson correlation coefficient (0.92) confirmed score stability between testing periods.
Conclusions:
- The Victoria Bowel Performance Scale (BPS) demonstrates good reliability for assessing bowel status in palliative care.
- The BPS offers a consistent method for evaluating stool characteristics, bowel pattern, and defecation control.
- Further prospective validation in clinical practice and guideline testing is warranted.
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