The Italian admission experience survey: A factor analytic study on a sample of 156 acutely hospitalized psychiatric patients

Abstract

Introduction

The admission experience survey (AES) is a reliable tool for measuring perceived coercion in mental hospital admission. We developed the Italian AES through translation back-translation and administered it to acutely hospitalized psychiatric patients.

Objectives/Aims

To verify psychometric characteristics of the Italian AES. To Examine the AES factor structure.

Methods

n = 156 acutely hospitalized patients (48% women, 69% voluntary) were recruited in two university hospitals in Rome (Umberto I Policlinic, Sant’Andrea Hospital) and were administered the Italian AES. We conducted a principal component analysis (PCA) with equamax rotation.

Results

Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the sample are reported in Table 1. The Italian AES had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90); Guttmann split-half reliability coefficient was 0.90. AES total score significantly differed between voluntary and involuntary patients (5.08 ± 4.1 vs. 8.1 ± 4.9, P < 0.05). PCA disclosed a three-factor solution explaining 59.3 of the variance. Significant correlations emerged between AES total score and clinical variables (Table 2). Pearson's correlation coefficient disclosed a significant correlation between perceived coercion and psychiatric symptoms severity (BPRS total score).

Conclusions

The Italian version of AES and proposed new factor structure proved reliable.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Table 1

Table 2