Development and Psychometric Validation of the Intensive Care Unit Caregiver Distress Scale

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Nursing
• Critical Care Medicine

Background:

• Family caregivers of ICU patients face significant psychological distress.
• Existing general caregiver instruments do not capture ICU-specific stressors.
• There is a need for a specialized measurement tool for this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a self-report instrument to measure psychological distress specific to ICU family caregivers.
• To explore the dimensional structure of this new scale.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the developed instrument.

Main Methods:

• The ICU Caregiver Distress Scale (ICU-CDS) was developed through item generation, content validation, and pilot testing.
• A sample of 313 family caregivers of ICU patients participated in the study.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to determine the scale's structure and psychometric properties.

Main Results:

• The ICU-CDS exhibited a clear multidimensional structure.
• The scale achieved a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.72.
• Satisfactory convergent validity was demonstrated through correlations with the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale.

Conclusions:

• The ICU-CDS is a robust and contextually sensitive measure for psychological distress in ICU family caregivers.
• This scale addresses limitations of general caregiver instruments by capturing ICU-specific stressors.
• The ICU-CDS can be effectively utilized for assessing distress in family members of ICU patients.