Child delirium assessment scale: Validity and reliability study

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to develop the child delirium assessment scale to determine the factor structure and to determine its validity and reliability.
METHODS: The sample of the methodological type study consists of 105 children who were admitted to the third-level pediatric intensive care unit of a public hospital in a province in eastern Türkiye between February and May 2019 and met the inclusion criteria. Content and construct validity and reliability analyses of the items created using the Delphi technique were performed.
RESULTS: In the exploratory factor analysis of 28 items obtained with the Delphi technique, a one-dimensional structure consisting of 28 items explaining 49.99% of the total variance was obtained. In confirmatory factor analysis, it was determined that the scale structure had sufficient fit indices. The Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.96, and the test half value was 0.91. There was a strong correlation between them and the Cornell Pediatric Delirium Scale used as a parallel test (r=0.957, p<0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study determined that the child delirium assessment scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool for nurses in determining delirium in children hospitalized in the intensive care unit.