Abstract
Introduction: In psychiatric
settings, aggressive events frequently occur during therapy. These events,
which tend to threaten the safety of the patient and the staff, can lead to the
enforcement of compulsory measures such as the isolation or restraining of the
patient. The use of a proper standard scale to register aggression can
facilitate the assessment and control of aggression and help reduce its
frequency and severity. The review of
literature revealed only a few studies conducted on aggressive behavior in hospitalized psychiatric patients in Iran and showed that
the lack of a reliable and valid observation scale for registering in
psychiatric settings. The aim of this study is to evaluate the
validity and reliability of the Staff Observation Aggression Scale—Revised
(SOAS-R).
Methods: This psychometric study of the
scale was conducted to determine
the validity and reliability of the SOAS-R. The validation of the scale was assessed
on the basis of 319 aggressive events in the psychiatric wards of the Baqiyatallah
and Roozbeh hospitals. Convenience sampling was used for
subject selection. Psychometric properties of SOAS-R were studied in two stages. First,
the standard scale was translated according to the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA)
translation methodology. The face validity, content , and construct
validity of the
translated version were then determined. The construct validity of the scale was assessed by
comparing the known groups.
Results: The internal
consistency of the whole scale was 0.99. The intra-class correlation coefficients
(ICC) were 0.852–0.995 while kappa
coefficient was 0.43 to 0.65 for the different aspects of the SOAS-R. The
validity of the scale was concurrently assessed by using the Visual Analogue
Scale (VAS), with a Spearman-Brown
correlation coefficient of 0.90.
Conclusion: These results
showed a favourable validity and reliability for the Persian version of the SOAS-R
for the assessment of aggressive behaviour in psychiatric patients.