Development and Preliminary Validation of the Coma Arousal Communication Scale.

Objective: To develop a Coma Arousal Communication Scale and perform preliminary validation.

Methods: A group of experts developed a questionnaire to assess communication between patients emerging from coma and caregiver (participation, communication modes, and themes) and the strategies used to facilitate communication. To assess the scale's psychometric characteristics, it was presented to the caregivers of 40 inpatients admitted to 5 coma units and (to obtain reference data) to 29 control participants.