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Children's Perioperative Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (CPMAS): Development and validation
Cheryl H T Chow1, Ryan J Van Lieshout2, Norman Buckley3
1MiNDS Neuroscience Graduate Program, McMaster University.
Insights
The Children's Perioperative Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (CPMAS) effectively measures anxiety in children undergoing surgery. This validated tool shows good reliability and correlates with other anxiety measures, aiding in pediatric care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychology
- Anesthesiology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Millions of children experience perioperative anxiety annually, leading to adverse outcomes.
- Existing measures may not be suitable for busy clinical settings or young children.
- A simple, age-appropriate tool is needed to assess pediatric perioperative anxiety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Children's Perioperative Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (CPMAS).
- To determine the reliability and validity of the CPMAS in children undergoing surgery.
- To establish CPMAS as a useful clinical tool for pediatric perioperative anxiety.
Main Methods:
- Eighty children (7-13 years) undergoing elective surgery completed the CPMAS and SCARED-C at three time points.
- Psychometric properties assessed included internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
- Convergent validity was examined by correlating CPMAS scores with SCARED-C scores.
Main Results:
- The CPMAS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .80) and stability (ICC = 0.71).
- CPMAS scores showed moderate correlations with SCARED-C total and state-related anxiety scores.
- These findings indicate the CPMAS measures similar constructs to the SCARED-C.
Conclusions:
- The CPMAS is a reliable and valid self-report measure for pediatric perioperative anxiety.
- The scale has potential as a valuable tool in clinical settings for children undergoing surgery.
- Further use of CPMAS can improve the assessment and management of anxiety in pediatric surgical patients.
Abstract:
Up to 5 million children are affected by perioperative anxiety in North America each year. High perioperative anxiety is predictive of numerous adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes in youth. We developed the Children's Perioperative Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (CPMAS) to address the need for a simple, age-appropriate self-report measure of pediatric perioperative anxiety in busy hospital settings. The CPMAS is a visual analog scale composed of 5 items, each of which is scored from 0-100. The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the CPMAS in children undergoing surgery. Eighty children aged 7 to 13 years who were undergoing elective surgery at a university-affiliated children's hospital were recruited. Children self-completed the CPMAS and the Screen for Childhood Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED-C) at 3 time points: at preoperative assessment (T1), on the day of the operation (T2), and 1 month postoperatively (T3). Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and the convergent validity of the CPMAS were assessed across all 3 visits. The CPMAS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ .80) and stability (ICC = 0.71) across all 3 visits. CPMAS scores were moderately correlated with total SCARED-C scores (r values = .35 to .54, p values < .05 to .01) and SCARED-C state-related anxiety scores (r values = .29 to .71, p values < .05 to .01) at all 3 time points, suggesting the CPMAS and SCARED-C measures tap similar but not identical phenomena. These results suggest that the CPMAS has the potential to be a useful tool for evaluating perioperative anxiety in children undergoing surgery. (PsycINFO Database Record