REPRODUCIBILITY AND APPLICABILITY OF A PEDIATRIC SCORE OF CLINICAL DETERIORATION WARNING

Abstract

Object: to measure the reproducibility and applicability of the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score to the Brazilian context (BPEWS-Br) in order to detect clinical deterioration. Method: a study to test the performance of BPEWS-Br regarding its reproducibility and applicability. Two trained nurses randomly assigned a score to 50 children from zero to 10 years old with a three to five minute interval between evaluations. To verify the applicability, nurses timed the score assignment. Data were processed in SPSS and VassarStats.net. Reproducibility was measured by simple Kappa and weighted Kappa score. The mean was calculated regarding the time of the score. Results: simple Kappa was 0.85 and weighted Kappa was 0.80. The average time required for the nurses to evaluate and use BPEWS-Br was 4.14 and 3.48 minutes. Conclusion: BPEWS-Br proved to be reliable and feasible to recognize warning signs of clinical deterioration in the children studied.