Pressure Ulcers: Development and psychometric evaluation of the Patient Knowledge of Pressure Ulcer Prevention Instrument (KPUP)

Abstract

Aim: Patient's right's to have a central part in the healthcare process is an important aspect of health care provision1. Benefits include enhanced motivation and knowledge about health and illness, and increased capacity to monitor and look after themselves2. Patient involvement in pressure ulcer prevention tends to be limited, as this aspect of care has been largely viewed as being in the domain of the trained health care professional3. To evaluate the outcomes of a planned patient led pressure ulcer prevention clinical trial, a validated tool to measure patient knowledge was essential. However, the researcher was unable to find a validated tool and thus the development and psychometric evaluation of KPUP4 instrument was necessary. Method: Step 1 involved development of the questionnaire, to explore knowledge, attitudes and health behaviours, related to pressure ulcer prevention. Firstly content validity was undertaken. Items with a Content Validity Index of .78, or higher were included. Step 2 involved psychometric evaluation of the KPUP4 among a cohort of 200 older persons on a test/retest basis, following ethical approval and consent. Results / Discussion: Data were analysed, stored and presented using SPSS version 23.05. Cronbach's alpha was relatively stable (a=. 58 for test, a=. 54 for retest) for the instrument. The correlation between the test/retest computed score was positive (r=. 60). Conclusion: The development of the KPUP4 as a reliable and valid instrument to assess patient's knowledge of, and attitudes to behaviours towards pressure ulcer prevention is an important step in order to evaluate the impact of education programmes on patients.