The Chinese version of the skin tear knowledge assessment instrument (OASES): Cultural adaptation and validation

Abstract

Background: Skin tear knowledge is an important predictor of the decreased incidence and management of skin tears, and the knowledge level among Chinese nurses is unknown so far. A validated instrument for measuring skin tear knowledge is urgent.

Objective: To culturally adapt the skin tear knowledge assessment instrument (OASES) into Chinese and verify its validity and reliability in the Chinese context.

Methods: The cultural adaptation process for OASES into Chinese was established on Beaton's translation model. Content validity was determined by the 8-expert group in wound care. A nationwide psychometric validation study was performed on a convenience sample of 3333 nurses from 113 tertiary hospitals, of whom 98 nurses finished the test-retest procedure for reliability analysis. Item validity (item difficulty and discriminating index) and construct validity (known-groups technique) were tested.

Results: The content validity index was 0.88-1.00. The item validity was as follows: Item difficulty ranged from 0.16 to 0.86, with an average value of 0.52; the discriminating index varied between 0.05 and 0.61. The known-group technique demonstrated excellent construct validity with a significant difference between predefined groups with theoretically expected higher knowledge scores and theoretically expected lower knowledge scores (P < 0.001). For the test-retest reliability, the Intraclass correction coefficient (ICC) during a 14-day interval for the overall tool was 0.79 (95% CI = 0.71-0.86), and Cohen's kappa value for each item varied from 0.17 to 0.62.

Conclusions: The Chinese version of OASES was validated to be suitable for skin tear knowledge assessment with acceptable psychometric properties, through which the knowledge and training priorities of skin tear among Chinese nurses can be quantified.

Keywords: Knowledge; Nursing; Reliability; Skin tear; Validity.