Development of the Thirst Discomfort Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study
Bahar Çiftçia✉, Güzel Nur Yıldızb, Gülçin Avşarc, Sema Kösed, Esra AYDINe, Sevgi Doğanf, Şeymanur ÇELİKg
- aBahar Çiftçi is an assistant professor, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Atatürk University, Atateknokent, Erzurum, Turkey
- bGüzel Nur Yıldız is an instructor, Department of Dialysis, Muş Alparslan University, Muş, Turkey
- cGülçin Avşar is an associate professor, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Atatürk University, Atateknokent, Erzurum, Turkey
- dSema Köse is an instructor, Department of Nursing, Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Erzincan, Turkey
- eEsra Aydın is an instructor, Department of Dialysis, Gümüşhane University, Gümüşhane, Turkey
- fSevgi Doğan is a research assistant, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
- gŞeymanur Çelik is a research assistant, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
- ✉Corresponding author
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Thirst is a sensation associated with a dry mouth and the desire or craving to drink water. Surgical patients are among those hospitalized individuals who are at high risk of developing both osmotic and hypovolemic thirst. OBJECTIVES: To develop a new measurement tool for evaluating the thirst-related discomfort of surgical patients and to assess its validity and reliability. METHODS: The study population consisted of patients admitted to the surgical clinics of a research hospital in Turkey between January and March 2022. The new measurement tool was developed in several stages: a pilot implementation phase with 51 patients and the main implementation phase with 198 patients. Data were collected by means of face-to-face interviews with patients. Exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 22, and IBM SPSS Amos. RESULTS: The final Thirst Discomfort Scale consisted of 12 items in 3 subdimensions. The Cronbach α values of the scale subdimensions ranged from 0.787 to 0.848, and the Cronbach α value for the scale as a whole was 0.886. The scale explained 66.237% of the total variance of the data. CONCLUSION: The Thirst Discomfort Scale consisting of 12 items and 3 subdimensions is a valid and reliable measurement tool for evaluating thirst-related discomfort of surgical patients.
TL;DRThe Thirst Discomfort Scale consisting of 12 items and 3 subdimensions is a valid and reliable measurement tool for evaluating thirst-related discomfort of surgical patients. (Semantic Scholar)