Design and evaluation of the psychometric properties of a self-questionnaire on patient adherence to wearing elastic compression stockings

Background Patients’ adherence to elastic compression stockings is difficult to evaluate, and therefore we create a short self-questionnaire and validate its psychometric properties. Methods We reduce the questions with Varimed rotation analysis, evaluate its internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha test and its external validity by comparison to electronic thermic captors. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine a threshold and determine its sensitivity and specificity. Results The initial questionnaire was reduced from 22 to 5 questions rated from 0 to 4. The internal consistency and its external validity are good, and the ROC analysis shows that values > 3 correspond to poor compliance with a sensitivity of 88.1% and a specificity of 63.1%. Conclusion The adherence score is valid for the detection of patients poorly compliant to the wearing of elastic compression. Its small number of questions makes it a suitable for a screening in everyday practice.