Slovak cross-cultural adaptation of the Alarm Fatigue Assessment Questionnaire

Alarm fatigue is a significant issue in intensive care settings, where frequent alarms from medical equipment may overwhelm healthcare workers. This can lead to desensitization, delayed responses, and risks to patient safety. There is a lack of validated tools for assessing alarm fatigue in Slovak healthcare environments. The aim of this study was to adapt the Alarm Fatigue Assessment Questionnaire (AFAQ) to Slovak conditions and evaluate its psychometric properties. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between June and July 2023 among 379 Slovak healthcare professionals working with electromedical devices. The Polish version of the AFAQ was translated and culturally adapted into Slovak following established international guidelines. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test the scale’s structure. Floor and ceiling effects were also analyzed to evaluate item performance. The Slovak version of the AFAQ showed acceptable internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.795. CFA supported a unidimensional structure after minor modifications (RMSEA = 0.058; SRMR = 0.086). The Slovak adaptation of the Alarm Fatigue Assessment Questionnaire (AFAQ) demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and preliminary evidence of structural validity in the studied sample. However, the factorial structure showed only partial support, and several items demonstrated limited psychometric performance. Therefore, the Slovak AFAQ should currently be considered a preliminary cross-cultural adaptation requiring further validation in more diverse healthcare populations and clinical settings before broader application. Not applicable.