Nursing diagnosis “Deficient Knowledge” in users of combined oral contraceptive

Our objective was to analyze the accuracy of defining characteristics of the nursing diagnosis “Deficient Knowledge” in users of COC. A cross-sectional study conducted with 97 women in fertile age at a family health center in the Northeast Region of Brazil. The data collection was between September to October of 2011, through interviews to identify defining characteristics and factors related to Taxonomy II of NANDA-I 2012. The nursing diagnosis in question presented prevalence of 58.8%; the defining characteristic “inadequate following of instructions” (57.7%) and the related factor “wrong interpretation of information” were the most prevalent. “Inadequate following of instructions” presented higher sensitivity, 96.21 (88.46 – 99.07), high positive predictive value (PPV = 98.28) and elevated negative predictive value (NPV= 95.35). All defining characteristics presented the same specificity, 97.62 (87.68 – 99.58). It is concluded that studied defining characteristics presented high sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values for the analyzed nursing diagnosis.