Assessing patient's care requirements: a comparison of instruments

The purpose of this study was to compare two patient classification instruments developed in different countries, Perroca's (Brazil) and the Beakta (Sweden) systems and to investigate if both instruments equally assess patients' care requirements. The survey sample comprised 85 patients from a university hospital in southeast Sweden. Statistical analysis used Spearman's correlation and Kappa. The Spearman's correlation coefficient for total scores and classifications were 0.83 and 0.80, respectively (P-value < 0.01). The level of agreement between the instruments related to the different care categories pointed to an overall kw of 0.60 (95% CI: 0.50-0.71). The findings indicate a high degree of association between the total scores and patient classification assessment using the Beakta and Perroca systems and also a moderate level of agreement between the two instruments in the different care categories. There are few surveys that compare classification instruments between countries making it difficult to know to what extent cultural differences influence measurement approaches.