Evaluation of the Postoperative Quality of Recovery Scale test and re-test in Swedish among healthy volunteers

Pether Jildenstål; Johan Eriksson; Margareta Warren Stomberg; Jan G Jakobsson

doi:10.12688/f1000research.9740.1

Evaluation of the Postoperative Quality of Recovery Scale test and re-test in Swedish among healthy volunteers

F1000Res. 2016 Oct 21:5:2549. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.9740.1. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Pether Jildenstål¹, Johan Eriksson², Margareta Warren Stomberg³, Jan G Jakobsson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Anaesthesiology, Surgery and Intensive Care, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden; Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden.
² Department of Anaesthesiology, Queen Silvia Children´s Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁴ Institution for Clinical Science, Karolinska Institute,, Danderyds University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

Introduction Patient outcome measures are required to assess the quality of healthcare. Tools for a patients' self-assessment of quality of recovery, during perioperative care, have been developed during the last decade. The Postoperative Quality of Recovery Scale (PostopQRS) questionnaire is one of the most well-accepted and validated tools available. Here we assess the PostopORS questionnaire in Swedish. Methods Sixty-one students from the Bachelor Program in Nursing, (50 female and 11 male; mean age, 25; range, 21-46) filled in the Swedish translation of the PostopQRS questionnaire twice. They also evaluated whether they found the queries easy to understand and respond to .Results The participants found the Swedish translation of the PostopQRS questionnaire easy to read and understand. There were minor differences in test responses between the initial test and the re-test 48 hours later. We found that the PostopQRS questionnaire has some background noise; 12 out of 61 participants (20%) reported mild pain, 25 (41%) scored some depression and 33 scored mild anxiety (54%). The cognitive domain showed a learning effect between tests in "word recall" and "word generation", while "digit recall forward" and "digit recall backward" showed no change. We found a difference in cognitive test performance with age; younger participants had higher mean cognitive test scores compared to participants >30 years. Overall, nine participants showed a decrease in re-test scores; two experienced a mild increase in pain; one experienced a mild increase in anxiety; and six performed more poorly on cognitive tests. Conclusion The Swedish translation of the PostopQRS was found to be adequate for use in the assessment of quality of recovery, and the questions were well understood by participants. Our study shows the importance of baseline testing for assessment of recovery, since recovery is assessed as a return to or improvement in each individual's baseline score.

Keywords: PostopQRS; anaesthesia; quality of recovery; re-test; recovery; volunteers.

Grants and funding

This study has been supported by the Department of Anaesthesia Danderyds Hospital and University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska Academy. The study has not received any further economic support.