Development and validation of the specific instrument for assistance complexity of puerperal and newborns: Fantinelli Scale

Abstract Objectives: to develop and validate a care complexity assessment system adapted for mothers and newborns, based on two pre-existing scales. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study of psychometric validation of instruments, applied in a roomming-in, in 2016. The instrument has 13 indicators, submitted to the evaluation of a panel of judges for validation. For the psychometric analysis of the instrument, five criteria were adopted: a) internal consistency through Cronbach's alpha (αC); (b) intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC); c) correlation between categorical items, mediating Kendall correlation; d) ceiling and floor effect; e) Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test. Results: after evaluating the judges on the categories, the agreement was satisfactory, being equal to or greater than 80%. The mean total score of the 13 items was 22.5 ± 4.2, with an intermediate level score of 52.9%. For psychometric validation purposes, the instrument presented αC scores of 0.73 points, between minimum items of 0.70 and maximum of 0.74 points. In the correlation of αC by items and the total score, the instrument showed high relationships (r2: 0.84). In the ICC assessment of 0.73 points (CI95%= 0.71-0.75; p