Measuring Patient Acceptance of Implantable Cardiac Device Therapy:

INTRODUCTION: Patient acceptance of implantable device therapy has been established as an important outcome but the operationalization and validation of a measure of patient acceptance of implantable device therapy has not been fully completed. This study sought to validate a new measure of patient acceptance of cardiac implantable devices called the Florida Patient Acceptance Survey (FPAS). METHODS: The sample consisted of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD; n = 58), and implantable atrioverter defibrillator (ICD-AT; n = 96), and pacemaker (PM, n = 84) patients. Mean age of all participants was 69 years; they were mostly male (62%) and married (75%). The final FPAS comprised 15 items with four consistent factors: Return to Function, Device-Related Distress, Positive Appraisal, and Body Image Concerns. RESULTS: The total FPAS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83), and internal consistency for each of the subscales ranged from 0.74 to 0.89. The FPAS demonstrated convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity when compared to other self-report measures of QOL, atrial symptoms, depression, and anxiety. A total FPAS score can be formed and between group comparisons with this sample indicated that ICD patients report a high level of acceptance (mean = 76), ICD-AT patients report a significantly higher level of acceptance (mean = 81.1), and PM patients reported the highest level of patient acceptance (mean = 85.4) of these implantable device groups. CONCLUSION: This initial psychometric investigation of the FPAS suggests that the FPAS may be useful in both clinical and research settings to assess patient acceptance of implantable cardiac devices.