Development and initial validation of a hospital stress questionnaire.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare research
• Patient experience
• Psychological stress

Background:

• Hospitalization presents significant physical and psychological stressors for patients.
• These stressors can negatively impact patient health, leading to post-hospital syndrome.
• Identifying and measuring in-hospital stress is crucial for patient well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key hospital-related stressors experienced by inpatients.
• To develop a new, reliable self-report measure for in-hospital stress.
• To provide initial validation for the developed measurement tool.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured interviews with 21 patients to identify stressors.
• Development of a questionnaire based on interview findings and existing measures.
• Pilot testing of the questionnaire with 200 recent inpatients for validity and reliability.

Main Results:

• The developed Hospital Stress Questionnaire (HSQ) includes 67 questions.
• The HSQ captured previously identified stressors and introduced 12 new ones, with 'poor sleep' being most reported.
• The HSQ demonstrated excellent internal consistency and construct validity, correlating with patient vulnerability.

Conclusions:

• The Hospital Stress Questionnaire (HSQ) is a valuable tool for assessing in-hospital stress.
• Further validation in diverse populations is recommended.
• The HSQ can potentially monitor patient risk for post-hospital syndrome.