Development and Preliminary Testing of the Biopsychosocial Prognosis Scale for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

BACKGROUND: The present study attempted to develop a self-report scale called Biopsychosocial Prognosis Scale for Coronary Artery Bypass grafting (BIPROSCAB) that measured patients' prognosis in an integrated manner, a month after they had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHOD: The development and preliminary testing of the psychometric properties of BIPROSCAB followed five phases involving 450 patients in total. RESULTS: Findings gave rise to a 25-item scale which was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis with varimax rotation. A 9-factor structure emerged, and the factors were named post-CABG affect state, post-CABG anxiety, post-CABG physical pain, discomfort in surgical sites, worry about return to normalcy, discomfort in the leg, CABG bio-social by-products, constraints in socializing, and infection and interference to routine life. The reliability, validity, and usability of BIPROSCAB were also analyzed. CONCLUSION: BIPROSCAB is a reliable, valid, and useful multidimensional self-report scale for measuring and evaluating the impact of medical treatment and psychosocial intervention in patients after CABG.