RESUMEN
(1) Background: To evaluate women's satisfaction with the care received during childbirth undergoing labour and how this changes over time. (2) Methods: An observational, multicentre and longitudinal study in two public hospitals of Spain with a convenience sample of 248 women during the post-partum period. Satisfaction was evaluated using the Intrapartal-Specific Quality from the Patient's Perspective questionnaire. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were considered. A bivariate analysis evaluated the relationship between satisfaction and the recorded variables to compare the hypotheses, and also to know if there were any significant differences between the scores obtained at the various evaluated time points (three days, 15 days, one year postpartum). The multivariate analysis by binary logistic regression helped complete the study about the variables related to the level of satisfaction; (3) Results: The mean scores for satisfaction at each time point were high, and they lowered with time. The bivariate analysis showed an association between satisfaction and the following variables: 'mother's place of birth', 'level of education', 'type of labour onset', 'type of birth' and 'type of perineal trauma'. For the multivariate analysis, women who gave birth vaginally, began labour spontaneously and had an epidural were more satisfied than those who did not; (4) Conclusions: Women seemed to obtain good levels of satisfaction with the care they received. Even so, based on continuously improved quality, we proposed some improvement measures, particularly regarding the physical environment and the information offered to patients. It is important to know at what time experience while giving birth should be evaluated as scores can lower with time as part of its normal evolution.
RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: translate the questionnaire Quality from the Patient's Perspective-Intrapartal (QPP-I) into Spanish, carrying out a cross-cultural adaptation and validation of its validity and reliability DESIGN: observational multi-centre transversal study, with transcultural adaptation and validation of a scale. SETTING: the study was carried out in two public Spanish hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 248 women in their postpartum period. METHODS: the instrument was translated and back translated. Validity was determined in different ways: by comparing the QPP-I with an instrument which had already been validated (the COMFORTS scale); by carrying out an exploratory factor analysis by means of a principal component analysis (PCA), and by studying the relationship between the QPP-I and sociodemographic variables (level of studies, age, place of birth of the mother), clinical variables (number of children, type of childbirth, use of epidural, gestational age), positive feelings (control, pride, safety, being paid attention to) and negative feelings (failure, feeling ignored) experienced during childbirth, as well as physical and mental state as assessed by the woman. Reliability was estimated from the internal consistency, with the Cronbach's alpha (α), and the test-retest, with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). FINDINGS: eleven factors obtained an eigenvalue greater than the unit value in the PCA, explaining 70.5% of the total variance. A statistically significant association was found with the variables place of birth of the mother, level of studies, type of birth, positive and negative feelings during childbirth, and state of health of the mother. On comparing the QPP-I with the COMFORTS scale, the area under the received operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.824 (confidence interval of 95%, 0.764-0.884). For the total scale, the value of α was 0.96. The consistency ICC was 0.76 (CI 95%, 0.65-0.84) and the absolute agreement ICC was 0.76 (CI 95%, 0.66-0.84). KEY CONCLUSIONS: the QPP-I with 39 items distributed among 11 factors seems adequate to measure women's satisfaction with the care received during childbirth in our setting. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: this tool can be used in both a clinical and a research setting for women to be able to evaluate the care they receive when they give birth. It is therefore a way of improving the care given to these users.