Satisfaction with obstetrical care: Development and validation of a scale on quality of care

Objectives. - To develop and validate a subjective and multidimensional scale to measure satisfaction in obstetrical care (SSO) during labour, delivery and two hours postpartum, which is relevant to the French-speaking context. Patients et methods. - Forty partially directed patient interviews during the 48 hours after delivery and four care-giver interviews were conducted to build up the questionnaire. After a prior feasibility study on 40 patients, the psychometric validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by calculating the Cronbach coefficient of reliability for 432 patients. Results. - Hundred and eighty items were initially obtained after content analysis of the patient interviews. Expert meetings finally selected 49 items classified within 5 dimensions. The feasibility study showed that the questionnaire was easily accepted and understood with a mean time of 15 minutes to answer it. Cronbach coefficients were respectively at 0.941, 0.949, 0.808, 0.814 et 0.869 for the 5 dimensions. Discussion and conclusion. - SSO questionnaire is a reliable and relevant scale to measure immediate postpartum quality of care in French. (C) 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.