Association between comfort and needs of ICU patients' family members: A cross-sectional study

To identify the family members' level of comfort and needs and to analyse the sociodemographic/clinical variables that influence this association.

The needs of family members are important considerations in intensive care units. In this context, the needs will be assessed in five dimensions: information, safety, proximity, support and comfort. This study describes the association between comfort and needs of ICU patients' family members.

Cross-sectional study developed at the adult ICU of a hospital within the state of São Paulo, in the period from July-September 2016.

We used the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (INEFTI) Portuguese version and the comfort scale for critical care patient relatives (ECONF).

In relation to INEFTI, the relatives assigned high importance to the needs (Median = 167), but not all of them satisfied (Median = 151). The comfort was low (Median = 3.6), and support was the most affected domain (Median = 2.78). The multivariate analysis indicated variables that influenced the comfort: marital status (β = 0.80; p < 0.01), disease severity (β = 0.03; p = 0.04), female sex (β = 0.34; p = 0.01), highest educational attainment (β = 0.37; p < 0.01), employment status (β = 0.81; p < 0.01) and kinship (β = 0.34; p < 0.01). Concerning the INEFTI scores, only age was statistically significant for importance (β = 0.16; p < 0.01) and satisfaction (β = -0.29; p = 0.04) of the family members' needs. In the multiple correspondence analysis, different proximities were identified for the variables comfort and needs. Greater ECONF scores were associated with family members with a higher educational degree, whose patients were stable, who attributed high levels of importance to the needs and who were housewives.

Family members have needs that are considered important but not fully met. No direct correspondence between comfort and family needs was identified.

In view of the lack of studies involving family members' comfort and needs, we believe that these results can guide nursing proposals focused on the family members, in line with the associations found among different variables that influenced the results.