Development of a constipation risk assessment scale

SummaryIntroductionConstipation can be a predominant problem within health care. Within health-related literature there is no comprehensive tool for assessing risk of constipation.Study purposePrevious review of the literature had identified risk factors for constipation. The purpose of this paper is to report the development of a constipation risk assessment scale.Tool developmentReview of previous work demonstrates that there are various methods that can be adopted to enable development of an instrument. DeVellis (1991. Scale Development. Theory and Applications. Sage Publications, London) outlines a framework of tool development and this structure was followed in this study.Scoring the risk factorsThe research-validated independent variables for constipation were allocated a score that reflected their relative contribution to the development of constipation. The risk factors were then organised to produce an user-friendly comprehensive tool.Content and face validity analysisFollowing development of the tool, it was subjected to content and face validity analysis and the instrument modified accordingly.ConclusionThis work appears to be the first within health-related literature that has extracted, organised and scored the risk factors for constipation in accordance with previous empirical research. Subsequent research is now required to assess reliability and further validity of this tool.