A rating instrument for fear of hospitalisation

To develop and validate a reliable instrument that can measure fear of hospitalisation experienced by outpatients.

After having a diagnosis established, some patients experience sense of fear, unpleasantness and embarrassment due to the possibility to be admitted to a hospital. Currently, there is no available instrument for measuring fear of hospitalisation.

Cross-sectional study for assessing reliability and validity of a questionnaire.

The questionnaire with 17 items and answers according to the Likert scale was developed during two brainstorming sessions of the research team. Its reliability, validity and temporal stability were tested on the sample of 330 outpatients. The study was multicentric, involving patients from seven cities and three countries.

Fear of hospitalisation scale showed satisfactory reliability, when rated both by the investigators (Cronbach's alpha .799) and by the patients themselves (Cronbach's alpha .760). It is temporally stable, and both divergent and convergent validity tests had good results. Factorial analysis revealed three domains: fear of being injured, trust to medical staff and fear of losing privacy or autonomy.

This study developed new reliable and valid instrument for measuring fear of hospitalisation.

Identification of patients with high level of fear of hospitalisation by this instrument should help clinicians to administer measures which may decrease fear and prevent avoidance of healthcare utilisation.