Introduction: Discomfort in (severely) demented patients is difficult to measure, since most patients loose the ability to speak and verbalise their feelings and complaints. There are a few instruments developed specifically to assess pain and/or discomfort in dementia patients, that are based on observations of facial expressions, vocalizations and muscle tenseness. In our study on starting or forgoing ANH in demented nursing home patients who scarcely or not at all ate or drank anymore, we investigated discomfort after the decision was made to forgo ANH, using the Discomfort Scale Dementia of Alzheimer's Type (DS-DAT), a nine 4-point items scale. Scores are based on frequency, intensity, and duration of the observed behaviour during 5 minutes. Several studies have demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity of the scale. However, some results in our study show the need for further research of the psychometric properties of the DS-DAT. For instance, men have a higher level of discomfort than women and sleeping patients have a lower level of discomfort than patients who are awake during the observation period.
Objectives: What are the psychometric properties of the Discomfort Scale Dementia of Alzheimer's Type (DS-DAT)?
Methods: The internal consistency and responsiveness of the DS-DAT will be measured on the basis of the dataset of the study on forgoing ANH. Differences between item scores of sleeping patients and patients who were awake during the DS-DAT will be compared as well as differences in scores between men and women.
Results: The internal consistency of the DS-DAT was high (Cronbach's a 0.85 at baseline). Data about level of consciousness and gender are not analysed yet.
Conclusions: not available yet.