French validation of the critical care family needs inventory

This study is a contribution to the French validation of Molter and Leske Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI). The importance of this validation study is based on the presumption that evaluation of family needs relies on the use of measures that are reliable and valid for a specific population. The preliminary validation of the French text of the CCFNI was carried out by back translation method of the French form into English by three translators. Then the final French version was selected. The study was conducted in the surgical intensive care unit of the University Hospital in Sherbrooke, Canada. The sample consisted of 207 voluntary subjects selected from adult members of the immediate family visiting a patient in the intensive care unit. The data collection was spread over a 10-week period. The French version of the CCFNI was given to subjects for self-reporting at the end of a 15-minute face-to-face interview. The reliability of the French version yielded 0.91 as Cronbach alpha coefficient. The Spearman-Brown split-half coefficient was 0.89, and the Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.88. Principal-component analysis and factorial matrices were used to examine the clustering structure of the French version of this instrument.