Abstract

BACKGROUND: Surgical fear is present in many patients awaiting surgery. However, a validated Italian version of the Surgical Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) was not available yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to translate the SFQ into Italian and to test its reliability and validity. METHODS: Design: prospective cohort study on Italian-speaking Swiss patients scheduled for a minimally invasive spinal procedure or spinal surgery. After forward and back translation and a pilot test, reliability and validity of the 8-item SFQ was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient, (ICC), Cronbach's alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Results on 63 patients revealed median SFQ-total scores of 22 (minimum-maximum: 0-68) at inclusion and 22.5 (0-70) one week before surgery. Test-retest reliability between first and second SFQ-total score was high, ICC=0.947 (95% CI: 0.912-0.968). Internal consistency of the SFQ-total score at both assessment times were high, Cronbach's alphas 0.916 and 0.931 respectively. This was also the case for the subscale short-term fear, item 1-4 and long-term fear, item 5-8 (range 0.853-0.909). CFA-results for a one-factor and a two-factor model favored the two-factor model. Correlations with pain catastrophizing, other anxiety measures, and health status were weak and only state anxiety assessed by PROMIS reached statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the Italian version of the SFQ is suitable for use in practice and has a high reliability. Validity and sensitivity need additional testing on a larger population.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1065-1073
Number of pages9
JournalMinerva Anestesiologica
Volume90
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Humans
  • Fear/psychology
  • Male
  • Female
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Prospective Studies
  • Middle Aged
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Aged
  • Italy
  • Adult
  • Cohort Studies
  • Language
  • Translations

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