Ford, D.M. orcid.org/0000-0003-1412-7769, Lawton, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-5832-402X, Travis, E. et al. (2 more authors) (2024) Development and initial validation of a hospital stress questionnaire. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 12 (1). 2396135. ISSN 2164-2850
Abstract
Background:
Hospitalisation can be a traumatic experience, where inpatients are exposed to an abundance of physical and psychological stressors. Evidence suggests that these hospital-related stressors negatively impact health: a phenomenon known as post-hospital syndrome. The current study aimed to identify hospital-related stressors, and to develop and provide initial validation for a new measure of in-hospital stress.
Methods:
Measure development occurred in three stages: (i) semi-structured interviews, (ii) item generation, and (iii) pilot testing. Twenty-one patients were interviewed regarding their recent hospital experiences, and a list of hospital-related stressors was produced. These stressors were compiled into a questionnaire and piloted on 200 recent inpatients to provide initial evidence of internal consistency and construct validity.
Results:
Stressors identified from the interviews captured all relevant questions from three previous hospital stress measures, plus 12 more. The most reported stressor was ‘poor sleep’. These hospital-related stressors were developed into 67 questions, forming the Hospital Stress Questionnaire (HSQ). The HSQ showed excellent internal consistency and construct validity, and correlated with feelings of vulnerability and being unprepared to go home.
Conclusion:
The HSQ is a promising self-report tool for measuring in-hospital stress. Future research ought to investigate its psychometric properties further in larger and more diverse samples. The measure has potential to be used to monitor patient risk of post-hospital syndrome.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Patients; stress; hospital; questionnaire; post-hospital syndrome |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) > Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (Leeds) > Academic Unit of Elderly Care and Rehabilitation (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Feb 2025 14:00 |
Last Modified: | 13 Feb 2025 14:00 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/21642850.2024.2396135 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223085 |
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Licence: CC-BY 4.0